Super Smash Bros: Intertwined Tales
by Crow's Stories
Summary: Five years ago, meteorites of varying colors had crashed on the planet. They don't seem to have anything special apart from that... or do they? This is an alternate universe fic where SSB characters are given random roles, ranging from being a random townsperson to a leader of an army. (rating may change)
1. Prologue

_**Author's Note: Welcome to the "Super Smash Bros.: Intertwined Tales" fanfic. Actually, this fic began as an intentionally bad fic on the Fantendo Wiki (my username there is Tired Blupi), with nonsense and OOC-ness abound. I then decided to request for deletion on the Wiki and "remake" the fic here. This fic takes place in an alternate universe, and the majority of the characters don't always keep their basic traits, so for those who can't handle this type of story, get ready to be cringed. ;) (Yes, this is still intentionally bad as far as plot goes. You should notice the fatal flaw of this fic soon enough)**_

**Prologue**

It's a stormy night. Running through the dark forest, a man appears as if he's being chased down, even though there's nothing behind him. Soaked in fear, he keeps running. That is, until he trips over a rock. The poor man is very exhausted at this point, he's incapable of getting up. After that, the man, under the name of Luigi, drops down, unconscious.

The forest area itself has its own history. Around 5 years ago, according to the scientists, chunks of extraterrestrial objects in the form of meteorites of varying colors had landed on the planet. The exact location was that particular forest. So far, the confirmed ones were the large red meteorite and multiple smaller blue meteorites. At the time, scientists tried to learn about the meteorites' origins, but after a long time without any clear conclusions combined with the rise of the world's crisis, they eventually gave up and decided not to talk about those meteorites ever again. It's made even worse by the fact that the meteorites didn't seem to have anything special aside from the coloring… until in the recent times, when the meteorites began to ooze out some liquid substance with the same color as the meteorite that produces it and more meteorites had landed on the planet. This case isn't as noticeable however, as, apart from the scientists' issues and the world's ongoing crisis, those meteorites tend to land in seemingly obscure places. Even if active explorers eventually find them, they'll always choose to shut up about it as if they know about the scientists' seemingly silly decision. However, there's only exactly one person who is still researching those.

One morning, former bounty hunter Samus Aran is searching around the forest for the meteorites. After a few hours of searching, Samus eventually finds the exact location of where the first meteorites were spotted. All of the meteorites are oozing out a colored substance of their respective color. Samus, without any hesitance, picks up one of the smaller blue meteorites, wanting to bring it back to her base. But then, she spots the unconscious man, Luigi. The poor plumber has bruises on his face. She then walks up to him and checks his pulse to see if he's still alive. Luckily, he is. So, Samus carries Luigi as well.

Samus's base is pretty much her broken down Gunship covered with vegetation. It has lost its colors and looks dull gray with brown rusty parts here and there. Nothing inside the base works anymore, so Samus only relies on the forest's resources to help her research and survival. Inside one of the rooms, Luigi is laying down on a bed made out of leaves, until he suddenly wakes up. He wonders where he is, and he also notices that parts of his face are covered in bandages. Seeing that the plumber has woken up, Samus comes into his room to offer him some food, which he gladly accepts.

Meanwhile, another plumber, this one in red and wears a brown long coat over his regular outfit, is walking up to a gorilla wearing a red tie and the same brown long coat, while the gorilla himself is looking around the forest. The plumber, Mario, is carrying a piece of paper. He pokes the gorilla, Donkey Kong, and shows him the paper. The paper is a wanted person paper with Luigi depicted on it.

One noteworthy weird thing is, from the looks of it, it appears as if Mario is completely against him. Mario is Luigi's brother. The exact reason will always remain to be seen… for now.


	2. Chapter 1: The Trophy

**Chapter 1: The Trophy**

One day, Luigi is fishing on a pier at a lake, and manages to catch only one fish so far. From the distance, Samus is seemingly watching him. However, deep in her thoughts, she feels that it's the first time she has accepted another person into her base since a long time ago, and that person himself has helped her for the past few days instead of being a threat.

Samus recalls her memories about Luigi tidying up the rusty base to make it, well, more comfortable than before, even though it's still as rusty as ever and the machinery is not fixed at all. She also recalls that he also helped gathering the other meteorites, all done without a protective suit like hers. While at first she's worried about him, she began to think positive that a person like Luigi will not gain any kind of side effect from the meteorites, if there's any, especially considering the fact that the plumber, while still healing from his injuries, can still perform various feats to impress her, and there's no signs of him weakening.

After her train of thoughts, she doesn't notice Luigi standing in front of her until she opens her eyes and looks down to see the plumber, surprising her a bit. Luigi just smiles at her before chuckling.

Suddenly, a ball of light comes down and takes Luigi's hat. The light appears to be two-dimensional, like a paper. Yes, the light emanating from it even only covers that specific plane. Not wanting to lose his hat, the plumber chases down the paper-ish light. Samus follows him as well.

As they chase down the light, they run deeper through the woods. The trees are denser, making it hard for those two to keep track. Eventually, they are separated.

Samus is the first to come out of the woods. She then jumps down the cliff nearby. Upon landing, she's greeted by someone. That someone looks just like a human, though he has pointy ears, hinting that he's a hylian. He wears a long floppy green hat with a dark blue tip on it, a dark blue cape, a green tunic, white pants, and brown boots. The hylian, Link, walks up to the bounty hunter and offers her some sort of trophy. On its round stand, a miniature of a Super Mushroom is depicted on it. Samus accepts it, but before she can even ask, Link has disappeared.

Luigi somehow manages to meet Samus again after getting separated. Noticing the trophy on Samus's hand, the plumber begins to wonder about it. However, Samus simply shrugs as she has no idea what's actually going on. Despite this, she decided to keep it, as if it's her valuable treasure.

However, both of them don't realize that they are being watched over by Mario and Donkey Kong. Having found what they wanted, the latter begins to make a call using his phone.

"This number is only used to report wanted people. If you happen to find a person featured in our posters, tell us. Anything other than that will not be accepted."

The gorilla grins in satisfaction, then gives his phone to Mario.

On the other side of the phone, a man whose face is partially covered by the visor on his red helmet is just as satisfied as Donkey Kong when he hears Mario's report.

_**Author's Note: The chapters tend to be really short for this fic, but I do hope I can write more words per chapter later on. By the way… now that the first actual chapter has begun, time to notice the fatal flaw!**_


	3. Chapter 2: The Glowing Eyes of Doom

**Chapter 2: The Glowing Eyes of Doom**

At night, Luigi and Samus are back at the base. The latter, now in her Zero Suit, is still examining the trophy she got from Link. Nothing seems to be out of ordinary. It simply looks like a typical figurine on a stand. She tried looking at every part of the trophy, but there's nothing unique about it. Meanwhile, the hatless Luigi passes by then sits beside her, sighing.

"…Luigi? What's in your mind?"

"Hm…"

"It's just a hat. No need to think about it too much."

All of sudden, part of the wall is broken down. The two are surprised to see a huge ape bashing through the base. Following the primate is Mario, the plumber in red.

"Heh heh heh… What do we have here?" the plumber began speaking. "I'm sorry, brother, but you have to accept this!" he then begins to throw a punch straight at Luigi. Luckily, the other plumber intercepts Mario's action by grabbing his arm, keeping him from landing that punch. Seemingly aware of his shorter brother's actions, the plumber in green throws him to the other side of the room. Donkey Kong is about to strike as well, but he gets punched in the face by Luigi, followed by getting paralyzed by Samus's paralyzer, her only held weapon as she's not in her armor.

Realizing that they cannot stay in the base anymore, Luigi has no choice but to run away while the plumber-gorilla duo is still down. Without giving Samus a chance to grab her protective suit, Luigi grabs her arm and drags her along. Of course, the confused Samus also has no choice but to follow the green plumber.

Once they've gotten into the deepest part of the forest, the two stop to catch their breath. However, they then realized that they are now surrounded, as Bob-ombs begin to pop out from every part of the environment. After that, the leader of those wind-up bomb creatures, a muscular bounty hunter in blue shows up. Falcon is his name. He's followed by two additional henchmen, Ness the psychic boy and Beedrill the Poison Bee Pokémon.

"Heh, heh. It's been a while. Do you still remember me?" Falcon said to Luigi.

Seeing Falcon, the plumber in green suddenly recalls his past memory involving him.

It was two years ago. A war was taking place at a region not too far away from the forest where Samus's base is. However, this is just one of the many wars that are happening at the planet. In fact, the crisis that started some time after the meteorites were discovered was actually in the form of these wars. Additionally, it's still on-going even during the recent times. No reason is known yet as of now. At one war, Luigi is one of the very few survivors. He was part of a tiny army, fighting against Falcon's explosive army.

Nowadays, seeing Falcon again pretty much brings back the poor plumber's nightmares. He never expected the bounty hunter, who also happens to be the leader of an army, catching up to him.

Without any hesitation, Captain Falcon commands the Bob-ombs. "Kill him!"

One by one, the Bob-ombs' fuses begin to light up as they charge toward the duo. Luigi and Samus jump away, causing two of the Bob-ombs to crash into each other. The explosion caused by this then hits the other Bob-ombs, like a chain reaction, all the while Luigi and Samus keep dodging every explosion and falling trees. However, despite this, more Bob-ombs keep coming, as if there are millions of them.

All is still fine, until in the middle of the mess, Falcon orders Ness to strike Luigi. Because of the explosions and a lot of dodging, the plumber doesn't realize that the boy is attacking him from behind. At first, he's able to fight back, until Ness gets out a rope and ties him up while they're still fighting. A pretty impressive act coming from a boy fighting against an adult. Meanwhile, Samus, who is further away from Luigi, is suddenly slashed in the right side of her face by the Beedrill. Seeing the blood squirting out from Samus's head, the helpless Luigi can only watch in horror. After that, he passes out, then suddenly…

A dark aura is visible, engulfing his body. He suddenly gets up, eyes glowing yellow, and his appearance has changed. He now wears a black mask, a green bandanna around his neck, and a black jumpsuit. He then quickly disintegrates the rope, releasing himself. After that, he reaches out to a nearby Bob-omb and hurls it to a group of other Bob-ombs, causing more explosion and destruction to the forest. Meanwhile, Samus gets up, feeling weakened from the attack and poison, then sees the whole destruction caused by the "dark side" Luigi, also known as Mr. L. Even though she can only see it through her other, still healthy eye, she is surprised at this reveal. Suddenly, Mr. L looks back and stares at Samus. In panic, she shouts, "I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!"

Mr. L stops moving as he remembers about Samus, then he slowly reverts back to Luigi. In horror, he looks around the devastated forest that is caused by none other than himself. "…What have I done?"

However, Ness takes this chance to once again tie up Luigi. Like before, it ended in a success. Now that Luigi is helpless, Falcon's team is almost done with their job. Falcon is now thinking that he also has to capture Samus as well, seeing that she's involved with Luigi now. Suddenly, Mario and Donkey Kong show up in front of the bounty hunter. Captain Falcon then promptly scolds them for making his job difficult. Meanwhile, Samus is trying to stealthily escape from the place by walking behind fallen trees when suddenly she accidentally steps on a twig, snapping it and causing Falcon to notice her.

"There she is!"

Fearing Samus's safety, the tied up Luigi tries to distract the others. He manages to charge forward, knocking down Mario. And so, Samus quickly flees while the others are focusing on Mario. However, the plumber-gorilla duo doesn't give up. The two leave Luigi to Captain Falcon and run after Samus.

Samus keeps running while holding her damaged eye with one hand and the trophy with the other. She has left her only weapon back at Falcon's place when she failed to escape without being noticed, as she accidentally dropped it. After running for a while, she's then stopped by a cliff's edge. She then turns back to see Mario and Donkey Kong finally getting closer to her, meaning that there's no turning back now. Before Mario can get even closer to Samus, she leaps off the cliff into the river below. However, due to her injuries and the poison plus the strong current, she cannot help herself. Also, her trophy is separated from her when she landed in the water. The weakened Samus is then carried to the waterfall.

Back at Falcon's place, Falcon's army is leaving the forest. The plumber-gorilla duo then approaches Falcon and reports to him about what happened to Samus. Luigi, who is dragged along, begins to fear that his only trusted friend is dead.

"Samus… I hope you're still okay…" Luigi thought.

At a lake below the waterfall, Samus's body is seen at the lake's edge. Link approaches her and quickly checks her pulse to see if she's still alive. The pulse is present, and Samus can possibly still be saved. Link then has to find a way to heal all her injuries before it's too late.

_**Author's Note: The fatal flaw becomes more noticeable in this chapter. See if you can spot it!**_


	4. Chapter 3: It's About the Trophy

**Chapter 3: It's About the Trophy…**

A small town. Surrounded by the lush forest areas, it is considered to be one of the most peaceful places, which are very few recently due to the crisis. The people living there don't really care much about the wars. They just feel grateful to live in such peaceful place. There are conflicts, obviously, but it's so uncommon it's hardly noticeable.

Walking to a café, two explorers, Barbara and Jill, are chatting about their recent adventures.

"The watery caves have lame treasures. All we got are these blue orbs that don't seem to serve any other purpose." Barbara said.

"But we got a shiny pearl, Barbara! It's huge!" Jill happily said.

"Huh. I forgot about that."

At the café, they're suddenly greeted with a happy Yoshi dancing to a disco music, with a red flower held in his mouth. However, he's then stopped by the café owner, Kat, shortly after. He's slapped in the face, causing him to get sad and leave. After getting rid of the green dinosaur, Kat greets them.

"Hi there. I'm Kat, and welcome to my café! Usually, Ana works with me here, but she's not here right now, heehee!"

"Well, hello, Kat. What's this place's specialty? We just need something to refresh us a bit." Barbara said.

"We're explorers, Kat!" Jill shouted, causing Barbara to feel annoyed.

"Heehee, well then, you two. I'll make my best drink!"

After waiting for a while, the drinks have been finished. Apparently, the café's specialty is a cup of tea. After taking a few sips, Barbara commented, "This tastes pretty good. I never thought a child like you can make this stuff, let alone owning a café at such a young age."

"Aw… thanks! Actually, I got a help from someone else here. Kirby! Come here! I'd like you to see our guests!"

Not long after that, a round pink creature with short, stubby hands and large red feet shows up. He has chocolate cream on his mouth.

"Oh… not again…" Kat said. The happy Kirby then jumps to the tall seat so that he can clearly see the two explorers. "Hi!"

"That's your assistant?" Barbara asked.

"Yes… but he can cause some trouble sometimes. He likes those sweets… too much."

"He's so cute!" Jill said.

"By the way, I know you're very young and might not, um, reliable enough to us, but… can you tell us about trophies? As in, a small figure on a round base?" Barbara asked.

"Trophies? Small figure on round base? Hm… I think I've seen one." Kat said.

"Really? Where?"

"Um… I think I saw a man and a gorilla holding something like that. I think they're explorers too!"

"Interesting. Anything else you know about it?"

"…No. I thought it's just a little toy."

"It's okay. At least you can give us a little information."

* * *

At a hospital, Samus wakes up on her bed, feeling slightly dizzy. "Where…?"

Feeling her right side of her face, Samus then realizes that someone has covered it in bandages. She still can only see with her left eye, but at least she's glad that she still lives. However, her memories of falling into the river have faded due to her rather short coma, so she becomes clueless regarding what happened to her.

Samus then leaves her bed and room and tries to walk through the corridors. It appears that she's not as weak as before. As she's walking through a corridor, a round pink creature with cat-like ears and wearing a nurse hat spots her, then promptly scolds her.

"Purin! Purin purin purin?! Purin purin!"

Not being able to understand what the creature is saying, Samus simply ignores it and keeps walking, eventually reaching the stairs leading to a lower level floor. There, many activities are seen. A huge, turtle-like creature with a spiky shell, wearing a mailman hat, and holding a mailbag is seen delivering a letter. There's another nurse there, but she's a human, with blonde hair and blue eyes and wears a complete nurse outfit. Two town guards wearing blue armor are walking by, with one appears to be a gerudo, while the other is a blue anthropomorphic falcon… or probably a pheasant. Another anthropomorphic animal, a fox, is seen trying to fix the cracks on the ceiling while being bothered by a blue red-winged being. A yellow mouse-like creature is seen playing with a green-haired man in a red suit.

Just as Samus begins stepping down the stairs even lower, the winged being, Devil, manages to knock the anthropomorphic fox, who is named, well, Fox, off the ladder, causing him to fall into the buckets of paint below. The hospital is definitely messier at this point. The paint even splatters on other people present there. Ignoring what's happening, Samus just runs out of the hospital.

When she steps out from the building, she sees that she's now at a rather foreign place. Without any clue of where to go and what to do, she just walks around the town, until a child-like voice is heard.

"Excuse me, miss!"

Samus looks around until she spots a small, wooden house where the voice is coming from. A young boy in a blue parka stands there, looking at her.

"You seem to be lost, so come here! You can stay in my house!"

Without any other choices, Samus can't help but accept his offer. She enters the small house.

In the living room, the boy, Popo, begins talking to Samus. "By the way, I offered you to stay because there's something important I have to tell you, and only you."

Samus is surprised at his sudden change in tone, from being "happy child"-like tone to a completely serious, yet still child-like tone. The whole important talk is also very sudden.

"Miss Samus, I believe you've met this person, alright?"

Link then shows up from the other room, trophy in hand. It's the Super Mushroom trophy that Samus lost. Samus, at first, wonders how the boy even knew her name, but she then remembers that the guy in the green tunic is the same person she met some time ago. He probably reported to Popo about her.

"Samus, this is Link. He told me everything he saw after he gave you that trophy. I'm actually going to talk about the trophy's purpose. From Link's experience with it, it appears that it contains a certain person's memories, depending on the trophy. Only Link can see those memories, though."

Link then demonstrates it by closing his eyes while still holding the trophy with both hands and concentrating. A vision of a memory is formed.

The first event took place two years ago. Luigi and his two allies, Mewtwo and Mr. Game and Watch, were relaxing in the woods, being positive that they could win the war. The vision then cuts to show the event taking place inside some sort of prison. Luigi, in Mr. L form, was held there, chained by cables that appear to be made of light. He was like a feral animal, as seen by his behavior there. Two orbs of light then hovered down, getting close to Mr. L, but the feral plumber roared, scaring those lights, before he became really exhausted and dropped down on the floor, reverting back to Luigi. The two lights are, in fact, the spirits of Luigi's fallen allies. Despite this, the lights could still help him escape by hovering through the bars then activating the switches that opened the gate and released him from the cables. When Luigi got up, he saw this as an opportunity to escape, so he ran through the dark corridors while still trying to be stealthy so that no guards can find him. He then arrived at a stable, where he got on one of the horses and escaped. After that, the vision fades and Link finally opens his eyes.

Samus is still confused, as Link never even speaks a single word to her. Popo then explains to her.

"Listen up, miss. When I saw Link doing the same memory-reading act for the first time, I asked him about it. He told me that the memory appears to belong to a friend of yours. He was part of a war, but he was then captured by the opposing army."

"…So that's why."

"I think at one point, your friend was attacked in the middle of the escape, forcing him to leave his horse. After that, he tried to escape on his own. And he succeeded that time."

"I can't believe this… From what I saw, he doesn't even seem to act like some sort of threat."

"Because he's not a threat, when he's not activating his dark side…"

Samus then regains her memories of seeing Mr. L for the first time. It was still a shocking reveal to her.

"You're free to believe me or not, because I'm just a kid. However… I've been researching those trophies for quite a while."

*knock* *knock*

Hearing the door being knocked, Popo stops talking and opens the door. It's Pichu, the Tiny Mouse Pokémon. It wears a mailman hat and is holding a mailbag. It then shows Popo an envelope.

"Oh, for me? Thanks."

The Pichu then gets on the Mount Pokémon, Gogoat, and leaves. Meanwhile, Popo closes the door.

"Okay… speaking of research, my friend Nana is currently climbing up another mountain that is said to have the remnants of the ancients. It is possible that there is some trophy-related information hidden there. Currently, we're trying to learn about the trophies' secrets, because after a closer look, a trophy's base bears a symbol similar to the one I saw at Smash Tower." Popo said as he opens the envelope and briefly skims through the letter.

"So, the trophies are connected to that particular tower? Wait a minute… trophies… there are more than one?!"

"Yep. I don't know how many, but I'm sure that there are more. Well, at least according to Link."

"Then, what am I supposed to do? Help you complete your research? I also have a research of my own, but it's not possible anymore."

"I know it's a stupid request, but yes. You were given that mushroom trophy because Link chose you to help us. Who knows if there's some kind of, well… I don't know, magical properties that can bring world peace, for example."

Link then gives back the Super Mushroom trophy to Samus. He also gives Samus a purple scarf to wear around her neck. Before she can even ask, Popo immediately tells her, "It's just to remind us that you're part of this activity. Also, it looks cool!"

"By the way, um… what's your name?"

"Oh. I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Popo."

"Fine then. Also, don't you feel uncomfortable wearing that outfit?"

"To me, this parka is already part of me. I love my outfit so much, I refuse to take it off, even if at hot places."

Samus just sighs, considering that she might be surrounded by weird people at this point.


	5. Chapter 4: Light of Hope

**Chapter 4: Light of Hope**

At night, in the forest, though not too far from the small town, Mario and Donkey Kong are resting underneath a huge tree. Many fireflies can be seen flying around, giving a breathtaking view for the duo. Among those fireflies, only one of them isn't a firefly. It's noticeably bigger and brighter. That ball of light hovers closer to Mario, making him notice it. His gorilla friend notices it as well.

"Princess… You are here. Um. I am sorry…"

The ball of light simply stays hovering in place for a while, then hovers in a circular motion, signaling the plumber to follow it. And so, Mario gets up and walks, following it. Donkey Kong, not wanting to be left alone, walks along with the plumber.

Deep inside the forest, the yellow light stops, having reached its destination. There, the plumber-gorilla duo stops to see a scythe on the ground. It's not really large, its blade is rather small and there are yellow engravings on the blade.

"That's… your old weapon, isn't it?"

The ball of light hovers up and down, as if it's nodding. After that, the plumber picks up the scythe.

"Thank you, princess. I am going to take care of it. Both Donkey Kong and I will stop the whole crisis!"

The yellow light is Princess Zelda's spirit. She was one of the legendary warriors. She was notable for being one of the bravest female warriors ever existed. She fought primarily with magic, excelled in archery and was known to deliver fatal blows using that scythe. Ever since the wars started, she had been participating in many battles until she finally died. How she died remains a mystery. Many rumors are formed from this particular warrior alone. Possible causes, according to many people, can range from being hung in an unexplored forest to having her corpse being hidden somewhere after being mutilated. Her only trusted companions, Mario and Donkey Kong, are the only ones who can continue her duties. At first, it wasn't possible for the duo to do so because her signature weapon wasn't found yet. That's why the duo has spent their time doing something else, but still relevant to the crisis. Now that they've found the scythe, Mario and Donkey Kong are now confident that they can help Zelda out.

After picking up the scythe, the duo, along with Zelda's spirit, decided to walk out of the forest. Before they can even leave the forest, they encounter the explorer duo Barbara and Jill.

"Hey! You two!" Barbara shouted in surprise.

"Wha-? Do I know you?!" Mario said.

"Actually, we don't, but we heard that you two visited a café in the nearby town."

"Hmph. Now, what do you want?"

"I'd like to take a look at your trophy, just to confirm that you're the ones that the café owner talked about."

"I don't want to do that."

"As expected. We know that you might refuse to work with us. Jill and I are researching the trophies and have been exploring many places for that purpose, but we couldn't find any. If you don't believe us, take a look at our badges!" Barbara shows them her large yellow badge.

"Probably faked."

"Our badges are legit. We know what the fakes actually look like. Fake ones don't glow like this."

"Hmph."

"I see. You really refuse to work with us. You are really this selfish."

Zelda's spirit then hovers near Mario's head, seemingly whispering something to his ear. The plumber is surprised at what the light told him. While still feeling annoyed, he looks back at the two explorers, walks up to them and takes his trophy out from one of the pockets on his coat.

Indeed, Mario and Donkey Kong own a trophy. It's not known yet how they got it, though. The trophy depicts a Smash Ball on it.

"Kat was right! Yay!" Jill happily said.

"Hush!" Barbara silences her partner.

After the two explorers stare at it for a while, Mario then asks, "Now what? What would you like to do with our trophy?"

"Oh. Sorry. Mind if I take a photo of it? From, maybe, three different views?"

"…Sure."

As Mario still holds his trophy, Barbara takes out her camera and begins taking pictures of it: front view, top view and bottom view. Once she's done, she says, "Thanks a lot. Don't worry, we won't let these photos fall into someone else's hands."

"As long as you keep that promise, I'll trust you two."

Barbara nods. And so, the explorer duo leaves Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda, going deeper into the forest.

"If those explorers actually lie… I'll end them immediately. No questions asked. No more hesitation. No ifs and buts." the plumber thought.


	6. Chapter 5: First Mission

_**Author's Note: I decided to change the fifth chapter. I think the previous version of that chapter seems to be too much... and I don't know how to continue it anyway. **_

**Chapter 5: First Mission**

The next day, Samus begins to wonder what she's supposed to do first. As if seemingly reading Samus's mind, Popo gives her a suggestion.

"Say, Samus. What about if you focus on finding your friend?"

"My friend...? You mean, Luigi?"

"Huh. So that's his name. Link never told me, so I don't know. But anyway, yes, I mean it. If the trophy can be properly united with the proper owner, who knows that something good will happen!"

"I can agree with that... somewhat. But where do I start?"

"Hmm... From what Link reported to me, he once saw you being attacked by Falcon and his cronies. So..."

Hearing the never-before-heard name Falcon, Samus then tries to remember more about what happened back then.

"Hm? Are you very worried, miss?" Popo asked.

"Oh. Um... I'm definitely worried, but hearing that name Falcon... I've never heard of that name before..."

"Huh. I think he didn't mention his name to you, but we know him though. According to Link, this Falcon guy cornered you with his army of Bob-ombs, and then..."

"I was... cornered?"

Link simply nods. And from that, Samus began to regain more of her memories.

"Okay. Let me continue. Link told me that your friend showed his dark side after getting tied up the first time by one of Falcon's henchmen."

"Now I remember."

"Oh?"

"After Luigi's dark side showed up, he proceeded to cause a lot of destruction to the forest we were in by hurling several Bob-ombs around him until I commanded him to stop. After that, he was tied up once again when he regained his senses. I was very defenseless at that time, so I chose to run away. During that, I fell off a cliff, into the river underneath."

Popo just smiles a bit after hearing that. He's glad that Samus has finally remembered what happened to her as well as Luigi.

"Now, miss. Now that you've remembered everything, it should be clear where we should be looking."

"Where?"

"Falcon's base, obviously! Where else should we be going?"

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"Well, excuse me, miss, but I think it's common knowledge to people around here that Falcon always goes back to his base once he captured a wanted person."

"Kid, I don't even live here."

"Oh... okay then. By the way... the only way to get to his base from here is by crossing the sea. But don't worry, there's one trustworthy person capable of taking us there!"

Samus can only sigh, then she says, "...Crossing the sea? But I thought that his base is located in a forest."

"That was a long time ago, miss. His new base is now located at a faraway continent. Obviously, it's not exactly clear which part of continent he resides in now, seeing that he wants to be less noticeable to his enemies as possible."

"I see. Now, who's this guy you're talking about that you think is trustworthy enough for us?"

* * *

At the town's harbor, Popo and Link take Samus to meet her with the person Popo was talking about. When they finally meet up with that person, it's revealed that the person is a blue-haired man wearing a blue outfit and black robe. He's also shown to have bandages wrapping around his head and a sword.

"Samus, meet Marth." Popo introduced her to the man.

Turning back to see the trio, the man, Marth, says, "Oh. It's you, Popo. Long time no see. And who's this Samus you're talking about?"

The female bounty hunter takes a few steps forward.

"Hm. A new face here, it seems."

"Marth, sir, Samus was brought here after a certain accident. She lost her, presumably, only friend to... *gulp* Falcon."

Marth is surprised. Suddenly, a ball of light shows up after hiding underneath his robe for a while. The trio is fascinated at that light.

"Oh. It's my fairy companion. I don't know what to call it, but I think it's best for it to be unnamed."

"That's cool." Popo said.

"By the way, um... Marth, even though that kid believes that you're trustworthy, are you really capable of taking us to Falcon's base?"

"Of course I am! I've explored many places with my trusty ship, and one of them, Falcon's base, also happens to be visited by my crew and I often." Marth shows Samus his huge, wooden ship with sails.

"I've told you so, Samus!" Popo exclaimed.

"...Are you sure this is safe?" Samus asked Marth again.

"No need to worry. My crew is well-trained to face the wrath of the ocean. My ship also rarely breaks."

"Why do I have a feeling that this won't end well..." Samus thought.

Popo then walks up to the blue-haired man.

"So, Marth. Are you okay with the three of us going to Falcon's base? You see, we're in the middle of a research, but we need Samus's friend who is being kept there to help us. Also, he's very important to Samus, it seems."

While the two are busy talking to each other, Samus walks up to Link and begins questioning him.

"Sorry if I'm sounding rude, but, Link, why didn't you try to warn us of Falcon back then? If you've been watching us since I've gotten the trophy, you should've known of any incoming danger heading to us."

However, Link doesn't answer. He simply looks down, as if he's hiding something.

After waiting for an answer that never comes out, Samus is suddenly called by Popo to board the ship.

Before setting sail, Marth introduces the trio to his crew: Gray Fox, a Hammer Bro, Kururin, and Isaac. Gray Fox is covered in armor and wears a maroon helmet, and not much is known about him. Marth's Hammer Bro ally looks exactly the same as the usual Hammer Bros, being an anthropomorphic turtle wearing shoes and often seen carrying a hammer, but instead of wearing a helmet, this particular Hammer Bro wears a white sailor's hat. Kururin is a blue duck who is a former aviator of a strange, elongated stick-like vehicle. He wears a purple bandanna around his head. Last but not least, Isaac, while he looks like an ordinary human, is capable of manipulating earth-based forces... actually, he used to. After an unknown accident, he has lost his memories as well as his powers. He is currently the latest member of Marth's crew.

After all of that, Marth and his crew prepare the ship for sailing. While the trio is waiting in their room, Samus asks Popo, who is now looking at the worried-looking Link.

"What's wrong with Link now?"

"I don't know."

"I guess I was too rude..."

"What did you do?"

"I was asking him about why he didn't warn us about Falcon."

"Oh. That. You see... Link is never comfortable if Falcon is around. He'd rather stay away."

"Why's that?"

"He was once a target for Falcon... until some time later when he was completely forgotten by not only Falcon but also his hometown... Remember that Falcon is very ruthless and can even turn an entire town against the person he doesn't like."

* * *

At night, when the ship is on its way to its destination, Falcon's base, everyone is having some dinner. Everyone, except Samus. She's standing at the ship's deck, staring at the night sky while still holding the Super Mushroom trophy. A shooting star is suddenly seen. To her, the shooting star signifies that there's still hope. Hope of rescuing her friend. Hope of stopping Falcon.

"Luigi... wherever you are right now, Falcon's base or not, I hope that you're still alright..."


	7. Chapter 6: Attack on Blooper

**Chapter 6: Attack on Blooper**

Later that night, Marth's ship is going through heavy rain and harsh thunderstorms. His crew is helping him out as well in order to ensure that their passengers can arrive safely. As for those passengers, all three of them are asleep.

"Urgh... If there's something worse than this, we'd be screwed!" Marth said as he struggles to control his ship.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAARRGHHH!"

*BOOM!*

The trio wakes up due to the sudden noises. Their door is then bashed open by none other than Marth himself, who has lost his right hand now. He's clearly seen clutching the stub where his hand used to be, trying to prevent himself from losing too much blood. Of course, the trio is surprised. As for Popo, he immediately covers his eyes from the unpleasant sight.

"Please... h-help us..." Marth weakly said.

"What happened?" Samus asked.

"A sea monster... is attacking us... Come with me..." Marth then walks out. Wondering what kind of sea monster they're facing, the passengers follow him.

At the ship's deck, a gigantic, white squid creature is seen holding its victims in its tentacles. All of Marth's crew are captured. They're being flailed around, with one of them, Kururin, ends up being slammed multiple times to the ship's deck floor, breaking both his skull and the wooden floor.

"NO! KURURIN!" Marth shouted.

"WAAAAHHH! CAP'N MARTH! THIS 'ERE BLOOPER CAN'T STOP SWINGIN' ME AROUND! HEEELLLPP!" the Hammer Bro screamed.

"What are we going to do, Marth?!" Samus asked in panic.

"Urgh... Strike its tentacles... But be careful... It's really fast despite its size..."

"What about those people?!" Popo asked.

"Did you forget... that they're well-trained... ready to face the wrath of the ocean... urk..."

Marth then collapses.

"MARTH!" Samus exclaimed.

"Don't panic! Let me handle this. Miss Samus, do you have some sort of weapon?" Popo said.

"I don't have any! I lost all of them when I woke up in that town!" Samus replied.

Suddenly, Link is seen charging forward towards the giant Blooper, sword in one hand, shield on the other. The hylian leaps and slashes one of the Blooper's tentacles, cutting it off. Naturally, the giant Blooper roars in pain and begins to focus on Link. In anger, it swings its many tentacles around, destroying several parts of the ship.

"Oh, no! This is getting worse!" Popo exclaimed. Then, noticing the Super Mushroom trophy being held by Samus, the ice climber says, "Samus, whatever happens, please hold on to the trophy tightly! You don't want to lose it again, right?!"

Samus simply nods. Considering the current situation they're in, Samus instead helps Popo out with taking care of the unconscious Marth.

Meanwhile, Link is busy dodging the flailing tentacles. He's still trying to find an opening in order to cut off the Blooper's tentacles, even though it's near-impossible at this point. A few minutes later, both Link and the giant Blooper are now tired, with the latter slowly submerges itself back into the sea, carrying Marth's crew with it. Link himself is relieved, but he's extremely disappointed that he couldn't save the held victims.

However...

It's not over yet.

The giant Blooper now emerges from one side of the ship, near where Marth, Popo and Samus are at. The monster then quickly grabs Samus, separating her from the trophy once again in the process.

"OH NO!" Popo exclaimed. He quickly grabs the fallen trophy before it's out of reach.

All of a sudden, several red-and-white balls fall right on Marth's ship. Once they land, they all unleash a Beedrill each. The Pokémon horde then promptly knocks out every survivor there. Samus herself is left unharmed by the Beedrill, but she can only watch in horror as her allies are stabbed and stung repeatedly. After all of that, a beam of light covers the whole ship as well as the giant Blooper.


	8. Chapter 7: Cherry Blossom

**Chapter 7: Cherry Blossom**

A slight breeze. A calming atmosphere. Samus wakes up to see that she's in a completely different place. It's a wide, green meadow, which only has a single huge cherry blossom tree, whose petals can also be occasionally seen flying around thanks to the breezy wind. It contrasts to what happened to her before that. The place also looks very peaceful... but otherwise it's mostly empty except for the tree. There's no one else there but Samus herself, who actually woke up underneath that tree.

The woman then realized that she can see perfectly fine. She puts her hand on her face, and as she expected, the bandages covering her right eye are gone and there are no signs of scars or any form of injury. Noticing this, she has two thoughts: either she ends up in the afterlife or she's currently dreaming.

Samus then gets up and looks around. She's a bit curious about the whole area she's in, but she's hesitant to explore it. However, there's nothing else in her current spot, so she decided to explore the wide open area anyway.

Suddenly, as soon as she takes a few steps away from the cherry blossom tree, the bright sky fades into a dark, night one. The cloudy sky clears up, and stars and a moon are now visible. Samus is already aware of the strangeness of the place, so she just shrugs it off and continues walking.

Hundreds of meters have been walked through, but there's still nothing except the grassy meadow. Despite this, Samus keeps walking, whilst thinking about Luigi on her way. She's now wondering about whether Luigi is still alive or not, as well as what Falcon would do to him if he's indeed still alive. Stuck in her thoughts during her seemingly-endless trek through the meadow, a voice calls her.

"You're Samus, correct?"

The woman stops walking after hearing that. She looks around, but she cannot find the source. The voice doesn't sound like anyone she's ever met before, yet that person apparently knows Samus.

In front of her, a human figure fades in from the nothingness. He appears to be a swordsman, as shown by him keeping his sword in his sheath. Samus takes a few steps back, fearing that he might be an ally of Falcon's.

"I don't mean any harm." the red-haired swordsman spoke.

"Then, who are you?"

"I'm Roy. I watch over the small town that you ended up in. Since I've never seen you before prior to that, I found you interesting."

Samus is at a loss of words. She has no idea what's happening anymore.

As Roy looks at the star-filled sky, he says, "People in that town know me as the "Flying Human" because I usually spend my night time jumping from one building to another just to see if there are no crimes happening. However, people don't know that I have the ability to enter a dream of someone that I know. And that's why I'm here."

"So... I'm really dreaming..."

"Correct. Now, what's your situation right now?"

"I'm allied with a parka-wearing boy and pointy-eared swordsman who never speaks, as well as a group of sailors. From what I remember, we were attacked during our journey to find Luigi, who is my only real friend. A gigantic squid creature caused a mess, then after that there was a light... then I ended up here before I realized that it's a dream."

"Hm. I see. I guess that Luigi person seems to be precious to you, right?"

Samus just nods. Roy then looks at Samus again and says, "It's alright. I understand. Every person needs a friend or ally no matter how alone you feel."

"Other than that, it's a long story to be told." Samus said.

"I see. I see. Now first things first, you have to wake up from this dream."

"How am I going to do that? This dream feels so real it's difficult to wake up from."

"Just follow my instructions and you'll be back in the real world in no time. But before doing that, I have to say that I cannot detect your current location."

"Huh? Why's that?"

"You're so far away. Normally I can mention someone's current location via a dream, but you seem to be located not even on the same island or continent as the town you lived in..."

"Could it mean...?"

"I think you've just reached your destination, assuming that your friend is located there."

"I hope so."

"Now... you can now wake up with ease. First, you have to close your eyes, then concentrate. Think that you're back in the real world."

"Wouldn't pinching my cheek do the work?"

"Sadly, no. It won't work if I'm in your dream..."

"Fine. I'll do it, just as you instructed." Samus then closes her eyes and begins thinking about the real world places she has been.

The dream world and Roy begin to fade away, meaning that it's working. After leaving only Samus in a black void, she then feels as if she's being transported back to the real world, as if the dream world being a somewhat "real", alternate universe kind of thing.


	9. Chapter 8: In the Ballroom

**Chapter 8: In the Ballroom**

After waking up from the dream, Samus opens her eyes to see that she has been sleeping at a seated position at what appears to be some sort of throne. She realizes that she actually has regained her perfectly-functioning sight, much like in her dream before. She then looks at herself, but it only causes her to get horrified as she's now wearing a fancy-looking pink gown. She thinks that this can't be the real world, but unfortunately for her, it is.

She gets up from the throne, and that's when she realized that the gown hinders her movement much. As she looks around, she jumps into a conclusion that she's now inside some sort of castle, and she's currently inside the ballroom.

But the question is, why did she end up there?

A door opens. The woman switches her focus to the door, expecting something worse. Once the door has been fully opened, she's surprised to see that of all people, it's Luigi, who is now wearing a typical prince uniform. He looks worried, and from his struggle to stay still, it appears that his movement is forced.

Another door, this time from the upper floor that leads to the only balcony facing the room, opens. Samus now directs her attention to that particular door, where a muscular figure steps in, grinning in satisfaction.

It's Falcon.

"Welcome to my castle, you despicable guest!" the bounty hunter greets the angry Samus.

He then continues talking, "Do you like this fancy place? It's perfect for you. Look, we even dressed you up properly! MWAHAHAHA!"

Samus clenches her fist in anger, while poor Luigi keeps being forced to walk towards her.

"By the way, I see that you've developed quite a strong bond with that guy over there." Falcon points to Luigi. "Isn't it nice?"

As Luigi gets closer, a familiar dark aura enveloping him begins to show up. At this point, Samus knows that something isn't right, so she begins to back off slowly.

"What's wrong...? You don't like your only friend...? Come on, your relationship is pretty strong, that's what I think. Relationship... relationship... ship... shipping... heheheh."

Samus keeps walking backwards, fearing that she will lose her life to Luigi if he reaches her. She can simply fight her way through, but she has no weapons and she doesn't want to harm Luigi.

"You two... I shall ship you... to an isolated, barren island where YOU WILL DIE! AND NO ONE WILL HELP YOU! HAHAHAHA!"

Meanwhile, Popo, Link and Marth have busted themselves out from the prison in the castle, thanks to the careless guards and easy-to-dispatch weak Pokémon. Marth, now having bandages covering the stub that used to be his right hand, is the only one to somewhat struggle moving due to his large amount of blood loss. Of course, the other two help him walk.

"You know, I thought I would die from that particular injury... but I was lucky that I didn't." Marth said.

"So did us! I remember being brutally attacked by those Beedrill, but we're now completely fine when we woke up here!" Popo said.

"Someone working in this prison must be really kind to us, heheh... Even though they couldn't find a way to fix my hand..." Marth smirked.

"Urk... let's ignore about that. We have to find Miss Samus!"

Back at the ballroom, Samus keeps distancing herself away from Luigi.

"Help me..." the poor plumber said.

"Would you look at that? He needs your help, yet you chose to stay away from him! If you still refuse, maybe the part where I ship you off can become my second plan, heheheh..."

Samus is now near a door, only for Falcon to say to her, "Don't even think about leaving. I have placed many of my guards there to keep you here..."

The door is suddenly burst open by the escaped prisoners, who managed to take down the so-called guards, which are simply an army of weak Pokémon and Bob-ombs.

"Samus! You are... um... *snicker*" Popo tries to hold his laugh after seeing Samus in a gown.

"Huh. Never thought that you're a princess..." Marth smirked.

"You can stop mocking me now, help me out!" Samus said.

Link steps forward and uses several smoke balls to cover their escape. He then proceeds to grab Samus's arm and drag her out, running away.

After the colored smokes disappear, Falcon can only smile, as if he has other plans.

"Heheheh... Run, run as far as you can go... but I, Captain Falcon, will chase you down, like a persistent predator chasing its weak prey." Falcon said as he exits the ballroom, leaving only Luigi, whose dark aura instantly dissipates, causing him to collapse on the floor.

Once they've successfully escaped from the castle, they discover that they're now at a snowy region. When they've finally gotten far enough from the castle, the four can finally get to rest.

However, Samus, still in the pink gown, angrily yells at Link, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!"

Popo then answers, "We were trying to help you! We just saw Falcon at that room, remember?"

"Kid, it's obvious that you can see Falcon, but how can you forget that there was Luigi there?!"

Link, being the only one who knows what Luigi looks like, ends up in silence.

"I'm sorry, but while I know Luigi's name, I don't know what he looks like. Only Link..." Popo said.

Samus looks at the worried Link, who can only look down, trying to not admit anything.

"Link, you never speak, but please, tell me why you chose to escape without taking Luigi..." the woman glared.

After a few seconds of silence, Marth tells her, "I think he's really stressed out, what with all the problems we have right now. But I gotta agree that we should have brought that Luigi guy along."

"Samus... I think there's something about Luigi that causes Link to feel uneasy. Maybe we can attempt going to the castle again later and check out what's wrong." Popo said. "By the way..."

Samus looks at the blue ice climber. "I found these stashed out during our escape from the prison. Perhaps you can calm yourself down after changing out of that... I gotta admit, pretty hilarious-looking outfit for someone like you." Popo said before ending with a slight chuckle. He shows Samus her Zero Suit and purple scarf.

The woman can only sigh and take the suit and scarf from the boy's hands.


	10. Chapter 9: The Assistants

**Chapter 9: The Assistants**

In the middle of the snow-covered woods, a small kingdom stands. Both the king and queen have passed away recently, so only the prince remains. Said prince is in the process of becoming king himself. None of the villagers realize, however, that the prince is notoriously egoistic and is often rumored to have dark secrets up his sleeve.

The prince has two assistants, though how he orders them tend to border on unfortunate implications. Even more so when one finally gets to see those two, who are both females: Ana and Lyn. Ana is the younger of the duo and is, in fact, Kat's sister. She was forcefully recruited as an assistant in the kingdom after she was captured during her solo exploration a year ago. She can't leave her duties, as she would be executed if she does so. However, she's still allowed to work alongside Kat in the faraway town, provided that she only does so during certain weeks. Even that doesn't equal more freedom, as she's still being watched even in her regular job at the town's café by one of the kingdom's guardians who is a stealth expert. Unfortunately, being a young child, she has no idea how much of a burden her life has become due to the fact that she sees both her jobs as something fun. Lyn, on the other hand, is a young woman of unknown origin. She has been working as a lone assistant for the egoistic prince for a long time until Ana accompanies her. Despite the prince's questionable acts, Lyn stays loyal to him.

The two assistants aren't completely isolated, however. If they feel lonely, they can play with the prince's various Pokémon which, sadly, are simply treated as his own slaves. It's not uncommon for the prince to have them fight with each other to the death, using "training" as his only excuse for doing so. One notable incident had a huge, powerful Blastoise blasting high-pressure water on the far smaller Clefairy. But the attack did more than intended, and the results weren't pretty. Much like Lyn, despite all of the horrible things their owner can possibly do to them, the Pokémon living in the prince's castle stay loyal, possibly in fear of him killing them off if they try to escape or rebel.

One bright day, the prince orders his assistants as usual.

"In preparation of me becoming king, you two have to make sure everything goes as intended. All fancy stuff should not be broken and no Pokémon skip their works! That is all."

"Yes, our..."

"Call me your lord!"

The two assistants pause for a bit before saying, "Yes... our lord..."

"That's more like it. Now, shoo."

At the castle's large hall, several of the prince's Pokémon are busy decorating and preparing everything needed for the kingly celebration, from the colored banner decoration to the tables for feast. Some of them are clearly tired, but they have to keep working anyway if they don't want to succumb to whatever kind of torture the prince will perform on them.

"Those adorable Pokémon have been making things prettier than usual!" Ana happily said.

"Indeed. In fact, they pretty much have to do this if all of them want to please the pri-I mean, our lord." Lyn said.

Suddenly, an exhausted Meowth carrying a sack of coins is about to pass out, causing him to trip and drop his sack, scattering coins everywhere and alerting everyone present in the hall. The poor cat Pokémon can only lie down and wheeze in exhaustion.

"Oh, no!" Ana immediately rushes to the Pokémon.

"I'll put the coins back!" Lyn decided to clean up the mess.

"You must be very tired..." Ana said to the exhausted Pokémon.

"Nyaaarth..." the Meowth cries weakly before finally passing out.

"Meowth? Meowth?!" Ana tried to wake it up, to no avail.

"Ana! Go to the infirmary section and have it healed! Quick!" Lyn commands her, worrying that the Meowth would suffer from something worse.

"A-Alright!" Ana dashes away while carrying the Meowth.

After the whole problem, Lyn notices that the Pokémon around her briefly stopped doing their duties after noticing Meowth's collapse, so she says to them, "Alright. All of you may go back to your work now. You really don't want our lord to execute all of us."

Understanding what Lyn has said to them, the scared Pokémon continue on their work. Lyn herself decides to carry the sack of coins herself, which is as big as the poor Meowth, which explains its tiredness. Thinking that it's supposed to be given to the prince, she walks back to the prince's room.

When she opens the door, she discovers that the prince is sitting lazily while surrounded by gold and valuable treasury.

"Ah... I love the shiny gleams of these... Huh?" the prince notices Lyn.

"Apologies, um, my lord. This sack of coins... it's..."

"Oho... that's my beautiful sack of villager donations that I asked Meowth to gather! Now give it to me!"

Unable to continue her report, Lyn simply gives the sack to the also-greedy prince.

"Shiny... Um. I don't care what happened to that Meowth. I assume that it passed the sack to you, hm? That thing must be lazy, and it's supposed to bring me fortune."

Lyn can only remain speechless.

"If it continues to be this useless, I might as well give it a well-deserved execution. Oh, I love that word!"

Lyn still cannot speak, though deep inside she genuinely feels sorry for Meowth and can no longer stand the prince's behavior towards his own allies.

"Anyway... I feel that there's something else missing..." the prince said.

"...What is it, my lord?" Lyn wondered.

"I need someone. A woman. A woman worthy enough to rule this kingdom alongside me. Wait, not just that. The woman should also help me expand this feeble excuse of a kingdom and conquer other kingdoms!"

Lyn is left speechless once again. Then, the prince glares at her and says, "No. Not you. You're too young to be considered worthy by me. Heh, I already have my thoughts set about the woman that I'm looking for anyway, thanks to my dreams..."

"...What does she look like?"

"I can't tell you, but I have a feeling that she's nearby this kingdom, hehehe..."

Meanwhile, outside the kingdom, deep in the snowy forest, Samus and company are still resting after the whole trouble with Falcon in his castle. Samus herself is still thinking about what to do to get Luigi out from Falcon's castle safely, without causing any more trouble.

No one in the group realizes, however, that someone hidden between the trees is coming for them.


	11. Chapter 10: Trophy Tale

_**Author's Note: Sometimes I still question myself why I'm still writing this mess.**_

**Chapter 10: Trophy Tale**

"!"

A twig is accidentally snapped because of a misstep, alerting Samus's group. The person who approaches them reveals himself to be a young teen with yellow hair, large square glasses, green jacket and trousers, black bow tie, white shirt underneath the jacket, and brown shoes. He's holding some sort of trophy, as indicated by its round base with the familiar "+"-shaped engraving. The trophy depicts some sort of badge, which is yellowish-gold on the most part and white on its inner circle on the center where it also has a blue lightning bolt painted on it.

"I'm sorry. Please don't attack me. I mean no harm." the boy spoke.

Noticing the trophy he's carrying, Popo gets to be the first from the group to talk back. "It's alright. We were simply surprised. By the way, is that a trophy that you're holding?"

"...This? Yes, it is. I noticed that you happen to have one in your possession. That Super Mushroom one, I mean. That's why I'm coming here." the boy points to the trophy held by Samus.

"I see, so you know about trophies just as much as, well, some of us..." Popo briefly looks at his allies.

"That makes things easier for me... because I want to help you." the boy said.

"What? Really?!" Popo is surprised.

"You see, there's something more about these trophies beyond what they look like and their rarity. Also, I think the woman over there seems to have an important task to do."

Upon hearing the word "task", Samus immediately replies, "The task for me is to rescue my trustworthy ally from the hands of the ruthless Falcon. We, in fact, managed to get into his castle, but... we didn't take him with us..."

"I'll help you with that too." the boy said back to Samus.

"Huh?"

"What happened there was a mere mistake. I'm sure that if more of us are involved, we can help you rescue your ally easier."

"You're just a kid. I don't think I can get anymore help after that blue parka kid..."

"HEY!" Popo shouted in annoyance.

"No need to worry." the boy assures her. "I'm armed. It's a mere freeze ray, but I think that's enough." he shows Samus his weapon, which looks like a typical sci-fi laser gun.

Samus still doesn't seem to be really convinced, but she just accepts, considering that she really and truly needs more people to help her.

Popo, upon realizing something else he had in mind, begins questioning the boy again. "Oh. About the trophies, um... what's your name?"

"Oops... Sorry for not introducing myself earlier on. I'm Jeff." the boy finally introduces himself.

"Alright, Jeff. About the trophies... we're trying to learn about the trophies' secret. However, the only clue for me is the symbol engraved on their bases. They're similar to the ones in Smash Tower. Other than that and the fact that our trophy can expose memories, I have no idea."

Jeff then sits on a log, next to Popo, and says, "They actually do have a secret. It's obvious that it's not uncovered by common people, but listen to this."

Samus, Popo, Link and Marth focus on Jeff while staying silent, wanting to hear his explanation.

"Long time ago, when our world, or rather, dimension, was created, the very first building to stand on this dimension's grounds is what the parka boy..."

"That's Popo. Sorry. I also forgot to introduce myself and the others. This woman here is Samus, this hylian is Link, and the blue-haired man over there is Marth." Popo suddenly said.

"Oh. Okay then. Alright, back to my explanation. The very first building to stand on this dimension's grounds is the Smash Tower, which Popo mentioned before. The tower is actually powered by its many trophies inside to stay standing. The tower's purpose? It's basically the heart of this dimension. If it's destroyed, all life in this dimension will be lost. Now, in the present day, have you all noticed about the colored meteorites that rain down our world?"

"The colored meteorites!" Samus exclaimed. "I've seen those before. I decided to research on them by myself until the whole incident involving my ally, Luigi, and our enemy right now, Falcon. If my memory serves right, I believe I've seen a quite large red meteorite and smaller blue ones, which are probably a result of the original meteorite being broken down. Speaking of colors, they also leak some sort of liquid substance."

"Huh. I thought that no one ever pays attention to that anymore."

"What makes you think about that, Jeff? To be honest, I've never seen such meteorite." Popo asked.

"...No one can figure out where the colored meteorites came from. Not even the more experienced scientists can figure that out. They all gave up and decided to shrug everything off as if they're ordinary meteorites. But consider this. From my recent observations, I've seen more meteors than usual. Sure not many of them, um, "survive" as a solid meteorite, just like regular meteors. However, I've seen one meteorite, colored yellow, managed to land somewhere around my observation spot, and its leaking liquid transformed into... something."

"What is it?!" Marth asked.

"Words can't describe what kind of abomination I saw. I think it has some sort of beak, so it's bird-like. But their entire body merely consists of that liquid substance, so they can morph into pretty much almost anything. The yellow one that I saw? After it morphed into whatever blob monster with beak it was, it managed to instantly escape my line of sight by zipping away quickly. I didn't even get to see it actually move an inch. It simply disappeared, like it warped, but a yellow trail remained on its path, meaning that it indeed dashed away, but in such speed that I couldn't see it."

"The liquid... it's sentient..." Samus thought.

"But what does that have anything to do with Smash Tower and these trophies?" Popo asked.

"And this is where I'm going to explain why. Since such abomination shouldn't even exist in this dimension, I have one possible reason. Our world is being invaded by beings from another dimension. Smash Tower by itself can't repel these beings, since it's usually near-impossible for those beings to show up. And that's where these backup trophies are needed."

"Huh?! These trophies are mere backups?!" Popo is surprised, and so is everyone else.

"Correct. According to the ancient text engraved inside the tower, those trophies are hidden and guarded by spirits until the time has come for them to be used to get rid of the abominations. Also, only the chosen ones are worthy of helping the tower, otherwise the unworthy ones will die when they enter the tower's secret chamber. And apparently, I'm one of the chosen. Samus, too."

"But I thought this trophy more or less belongs to Luigi..." Samus looks at the Super Mushroom trophy.

"Oh, really? So that explains why you're really desperate on rescuing him."

Samus simply nods.

"Anyway, from what I know, there are more of these trophies. We have to find the others as quickly as possible, starting from that Luigi guy." Jeff said.

As the discussion goes on, Link simply doesn't comment on anything, as usual. However, he begins to notice that his feet begin to look slightly hazy and fade into and from nothingness a few times, as if he's going to disappear.


	12. Chapter 11: Give Up

**Chapter 11: Give Up**

"CRASH!"

There's a sudden noise. A metallic claw-like machinery crashes through the forest, toppling down trees as it goes through, until it stops, just near the spot where Samus's group is gathering.

Link, who was feeling uneasy about himself before, promptly gets up and looks behind him as soon as the noises stop. The others also stop what they are doing and look at Link's direction, anticipating something.

Suddenly, the claw shows itself once again, and, in an instant, manages to grab Samus and take her away very quickly.

"SAMUS!" Marth shouted.

"Not again!" Popo said.

Link, meanwhile, picks up Samus's dropped trophy. Then, he runs to the direction where the claw took Samus.

"We can't just stand here and do nothing! Let's follow Link!" Jeff exclaimed.

* * *

...

...

...

"Where am I now...?"

Samus opens her eyes to see that she has been lying on a bed in a large fancy-looking room. Its walls look as if they're made of gold. There are colorful ribbon decorations on the upper part of said walls. The windows there are very large. Well-carved furniture pretty much amp up the fancy vibe of the room.

Suddenly, the door opens. A short creature with spiky blond hair, pointy ears, a mostly blue color scheme and wearing white gloves shows up.

"Haha! Finally woke up, eh, my soon-to-be-companion?"

Samus is left speechless when she gets up to see the creature. She has no idea what's happening.

"I'm not your usual Knuckle Joe. I'm Prince Joe, or, actually, soon-to-be-King Joe! Or even better, Lord Joe!" the prince introduces himself. His egoistic trait is already as expected, though Samus is still clueless about the situation.

"You're the woman of my dreams... I just want you to rule alongside me, like a king and queen!" Prince Joe tells her.

Thinking about the implications, the disgusted Samus can only say, "That sounds sick and wrong! You must be one of Falcon's minions! Where's Luigi?!"

Confused, Prince Joe says, "Oh, come on. I'm trying to be nice. Also... Falcon? ...Luigi? Who are those people?"

Samus is then left speechless once again upon realizing what she has gotten herself into. While the room she's in implies that she's inside a castle, the overall vibe actually feels different compared to Falcon's castle.

Prince Joe then speaks again. "Hmph. I'm going to assume that those two are considered special to you, hm?"

"NO! There's no way Falcon is considered my special ally or anything like that! Luigi on the other hand... he's my better companion. A friend. Not to the extent of being really that "special", but he had opened up my mind to more of my surroundings..." Samus said.

"Well, then. Luigi's your special guy, it seems. Say... how about if you just forget about him and help me rule this little kingdom instead? We can also help each other expand our territory and conquer other places! That's what friends are for!"

"Grr... You... filth! That's it! I'm walking out of here!" Samus gets out of the bed and tries to walk through the door, but Prince Joe immediately blocks her way.

"You can't mess with me. My dream predicted your arrival. You're fated to stay with me forever!" Prince Joe slams his fist into the wall, which managed to crack it and leave a dent. This creature possesses more power despite his small size. Because of this, Samus has to think twice before she can get any chance of successfully running away from Prince Joe's castle. She doesn't want to end up with more injuries.

"What am I going to do...?" Samus thought.

* * *

In the infirmary, Ana can only cry as she actually failed to save Meowth. The cat Pokémon actually succumbed to an undetected disease that was too late to be recovered from, made even worse by being forced to collect money even when it was horribly tired. Lyn then shows up in the room, but she can't say anything because she doesn't want to make matters worse.

However, she does have one thing to say. "...Ana. At least the poor Meowth is free from all of this. I believe its spirit is actually really happy. Not to worry, Ana. Now..."

Suddenly, a commotion happens, alerting Lyn. So, she can only command other Pokémon to prepare Meowth's final resting place while she investigates the ruckus.

Soon enough, Link and his allies are rushing through the castle's hall while being chased by the castle guards. Noticing the intruders, Lyn immediately unsheathes her sword and prepares to attack. Because of this, the group has no choice but stop on their tracks with no way to go anywhere else.

"Assistant Lyn! Great to see you there! Now what should we do to these intruders?!" one of the guards spoke.

Lyn simply glares at the group for a little while, then asks them, "What are you doing in my lord's castle? Answer me!"

"We're here for our kidnapped ally!" Marth said.

"We were told that the weird claw contraption thingy that was used to capture our ally, Samus, came from this castle. And that's why we're here!" Popo explained.

"I have a feeling that this castle isn't friendly at all, so we decided to simply rush through." Jeff said.

"...Your ally? Isn't she that woman that my lord had been dreaming recently...?" Lyn continues asking.

"Probably, yes." Popo replied.

"My lord has been having such weird thoughts these days. However, you can't take her back. If anything goes against my lord's wish, pain and suffering will be applied to you."

"Hey! We really need her! She's already a part of us! Taking her away will make our missions difficult!"

"...I'm sorry. But even if you desperately need her, I still can't allow you. Allowing you to take her back pretty much equals me betraying him. And I would suffer from a cruel and unusual punishment. All of you would suffer worse."

"Lyn..." another voice is heard. It's Ana's.

"Huh? Ana?" Lyn looks back to see the still teary-eyed ninja girl.

"Please let them through."

"Are you kidding me?! Our lord won't be happy if we do this!"

"So, um... any solutions yet?" one of the guards asked.

"No, not yet. Wait a minute." Lyn replied, then she looks back at Ana.

"Listen, Ana, what made you think about doing that?"

"You know what? I think I'd rather be like that Meowth! This is no longer fun anymore! I've heard your talk. I've heard their talk. And now, I can't help but want to stop serving him anymore. Yes, I've kept my thoughts for a long time, but now I cannot take it anymore. So, please, let them through and see their friend! I don't care what will happen to me! At least, I just don't want my life any more difficult!"

"Ana..."

"Who's that girl...?" Popo asked.

Lyn replies, "This is Ana. Along with myself, we are our lord's assistants, and thus we're not allowed to betray him in one way or another. But the thing is... she's just a little girl... And the death of a Pokémon right in front of her eyes for the first time had exposed her further into the harshness of her current life..."

"But now that she's actually, um, for the lack of a better word, rebelling against whoever's ruling this kingdom, wouldn't that make her your enemy too?" Marth asked.

Lyn thinks about Marth's question for a while. Ana, however, already can't stand the whole issue. She dashes to the group and pulls Popo away, surprising everyone else.

"Ana!" Lyn exclaimed.

"I don't care! I'm helping you guys out! Come follow me! And Lyn... don't you even try to stop me!" Ana runs away while carrying Popo along. And so, Lyn can only stand still while the rest of Popo's group run past her, prompting a guard to ask her, "She has betrayed us now, and the intruders are getting away. What are we going to do, assistant Lyn?"

There is no answer.


	13. Chapter 12: Here Today, Gone Today

**Chapter 12: Here Today, Gone Today**

Ana is still dragging along Popo through Prince Joe's castle's many halls, all the while they're being followed by the rest of Popo's group. Occasionally, the young ninja girl stops on her tracks to let the others catch up and Popo to rest briefly. This goes on for several minutes.

Until, that is, they've finally arrived at the door leading to a bedroom. Ana quickly opens the door, not caring what consequences she'll have to face later on. The opened door reveals Prince Joe standing by the huge bed, holding a jar, while Samus is in a deep sleep.

Surprised, Prince Joe asks, "...You. What are you doing HERE?! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! Also, why are you bringing a group of unwanted guests?!"

"Hmph. I knew that this so-called "off-limits" bedroom actually has some use." Ana commented.

"What did you do to Samus?!" Marth asked.

"Good question, peasant. I've splashed her with my sleepiness potion! That's my one effective way of restraining her until she finally complies once she wakes up. I can't leave her with brutal injuries anyway." Prince Joe replied.

"Comply to what?" Popo asked.

"Being my ruling companion, of course! I've dreamed of her for quite a long time, and it's about time that she has finally come closer to my territory!"

"NO!" Ana screamed.

"*gasp* You, Ana... Did you just...?"

"Stop it with your selfishness!"

"So... you dare betray me, then? Being my enemy now, huh? You know what this means for someone like you..."

"I don't care! I don't want to live here anymore! I wish to return to my sister... with no more of your people following me! These people with me... might end up like my sister, always missing me... while I have to work for you!"

"This ninja girl is right. Also, we're in a mission to wipe out chaotic abominations. Please, give Samus back to us." Jeff said.

"Blah, blah, blah... You're all talk, as if you all underestimate what I'm capable of! Have a taste of my Smash Punch! Starting from you, Ana!" Prince Joe launches himself forward to strike her. Fortunately, Link hops in front of the group and blocks Joe's punch with his shield, causing the impact on it to send Joe launched backwards. Afterwards, Link tells everyone else behind him to get out of the room. He then reaches to his pocket to pick up a smoke ball.

"Grr... How dare you interrupt my show of power..." Prince Joe angrily said.

Suddenly, Link throws the smoke ball, quickly covering the room with smoke, which explains Link's command to the others earlier. In the middle of the confusion, Link managed to get close to the bed and pick up the still-sleeping Samus. After that, he walks out, leaving only the still-confused Prince Joe.

Outside, Ana asks Link, "How did you do that?! I'm not even good at such thing..."

As Link prefers to stay silent, Popo says, "Link is just that good, haha!"

"Looks like Link has done it again! However, everyone, we have to get out of here as quickly as we can!" Marth said.

Everyone nods. Then, they all run.

After a few minutes of running through those castle halls once again, they finally find the exit. However, Lyn and the castle guards show up, blocking the gate.

"Lyn!" Ana exclaimed.

Lyn doesn't say anything.

"I'm so sorry, Lyn... But, I'm no longer considered by Prince Joe as his assistant. However, that's what I wanted since Meowth's death made me realize the horrible fate I'd end up if I stay here..."

Lyn then walks closer to Ana, then tells her, "Ana... I also consider myself quitting."

This obviously surprises the guards, as it definitely came out of nowhere.

Without any hesitation, Link immediately throws a couple of smoke balls, then promptly dashes towards the surprised guards. The others also follow suit. However, at an intersection not far from the castle, Ana and Lyn decide to go their separate ways, neither joining the group nor staying with each other together as a duo.

Meanwhile, the group is still running through the village, trying to get out. They don't realize that they're not followed by Ana and Lyn anymore until they've finally made it back to the snowy forest.

"Wait. Where are those two?" Marth questioned.

"Ana and Lyn, you mean? I have no idea!" Popo said.

"I have a feeling that they're left behind and are more likely to be captured by the guards..." Jeff said.

"Are you sure about that?!"

"But... on the other hand, they might be running somewhere else and didn't stick with us, so there's still hope that they'll be safe."

"Hope it's the latter..."

Suddenly, the group finds a piece of paper.

* * *

...

...

...

Samus wakes up, revealing that she has been sleeping on grass. In fact, she's now at a wide, green grassy field with lots of white flowers growing on it. The sky is clear and the bright sun is showering her with warmness. It's something that she has missed for quite a while after being on a snowy region for a long time.

Suddenly, sounds of a horse walking are heard. She turns to the noise's source to see a white horse. Wait, no. It has a horn. It's a unicorn! Not just that, Luigi is riding it, and he behaves like his usual self, being a nice guy as usual. Samus, despite rarely showing more of her emotions, is absolutely delighted to see her friend coming back without a scratch. He offers her to ride the unicorn together, which she agrees, despite the weirdness factor. The plumber in green then commands his horned steed to leap off a nearby cliff. Samus's brief smile suddenly fades as she's confused at what Luigi intends to do.

Obeying Luigi's order, the unicorn begins to gallop to the edge of a cliff. As it nears the cliff's edge, Samus can only close her eyes. Surprisingly, it transforms into a really huge swan, which allows them to fly through the sky. Samus, after opening her eyes, can only stare in awe while Luigi laughs happily.

After the short ride, the swan drops them on another grassy field, only this time the grass is purple. They then proceed to enter a forest whose trees are always dancing, bouncing left and right. There, Luigi shows her his... other friends, which consist of a couple of Chikorita, the Leaf Pokémon. They also happen to offer the two some tea. Luigi immediately gets a cup of the drink, while Samus seems to be quite hesitant at first, but she's given a cup by Luigi anyway.

However, before she can even drink the tea, one of the Chikorita has its back stabbed by a knife, which proceeds to slice its insides a few times. From Samus's point of view, this is worse, as the disembodied hand holding the knife looks familiar, a blue arm with a yellow glove. Meanwhile, a huge Bob-omb shows up and manages to disintegrate Luigi into nothingness by merely staring at him. Realizing that something is definitely wrong, Samus runs out of the forest to get some help, only to get captured by a lasso. The rest of the rope wraps around her and ties her up, making her unable to move. After that, two familiar faces show up: Mario and Donkey Kong. Behind the duo is what she's anticipated the most, Captain Falcon.

"I say... you have a very close bond to him... However, what if your so-called friend is like me, heh?"

Falcon then transforms into Mr. L, Luigi's other form that Samus had bad memories about. Mr. L then says, "I always love you, Samus..."

* * *

Samus then wakes up.

Apparently, it was yet another dream, but it's worse due to being a nightmare. When she looks around, she realizes that she's inside Marth's ship once again.

Suddenly, Popo comes in, and, noticing that she has woken up, promptly tells her about what happened.

"Miss Samus! I'm so glad that you've finally woken up!"

Samus doesn't say anything. She's still confused at her current condition.

"You look so down..."

Again, she doesn't say anything.

"Then I think you might not like what I'm going to say."

After yet another brief silence from the two, Popo begins talking.

"About what happened... after we got you out of the castle, we thought that we can take two new allies with us, but that wasn't the case. We can only hope that they're still safe and sound. After all that trouble, we found a letter." Popo shows Samus the letter that the group found after the escape.

_IMPORTANT NOTICE_

_The game of chase shall begin shortly, but here's the catch. At the same time, you also have to try to find where my prisoner Luigi is, as we've teleported him to one specific place. Otherwise, all your efforts will be for naught and we'll still endlessly chase you down anyway. Thus, your life is meaningless from now on._

_It's a lose-lose situation for you, because Mario and Donkey Kong are the ones who will decide when Luigi's time is up, which can possibly happen instantly after I had my henchman sent this letter to your location, and because if you fail, you'll either suffer or become part of my army, something that you all might not like at all._

_Sincerely,_

_Captain Falcon_

Samus can only stare in shock after reading the entirety of the letter.

"I'm sorry, Samus, but that's what we're going up against now. It's either staying alive or... suffering. And that's why we're using Marth's ship again, to travel around the world to find Luigi. Well... at least this opens up more possibilities of finding more trophy holders. I thought that we would never find this ship anymore, but luckily Marth's, um, fairy companion found us. It managed to rebuild a new ship somehow. I feel bad for that thing, especially when Marth admitted that it used up almost all of its power." Popo explained.

Samus is still depressed.

"Samus... I know it's harsh, but we have no other choice. We have to do what we can do best. I believe that Luigi is still alright. I'm sure of it."


	14. Chapter 13: Samus's Thoughts

**Chapter 13: Samus's Thoughts**

It has been a long trip. Day changes to night. Night changes to day. Marth's ship has been sailing through the seas without stopping, in fear that Falcon's army will catch up to them. Even despite the loss of one of his hands, he can still control his ship properly with only his left hand. The sailing ship keeps going, until one night Marth decides to stop somewhere, preferably a wide continent. He spots a wide land in the horizon, prompting him to go there, though not before he announces to every passenger present that they'll be arriving at that land soon.

Once the ship stops by the sandy terrain, everyone on board gets off the ship. After checking that everyone and the trophies are present, Marth whispers to his fairy companion, telling it to do something. The ball of light then floats near the ship. It proceeds to glow more intensely, causing everyone watching it to shield their eyes. The wooden ship then explodes, but it somehow doesn't leave any remnants. Unfortunately, the light itself managed to destroy itself as well.

"What did you just do, Marth?" Popo asked.

"I told my fairy companion to destroy it without leaving any traces, even though it also involves a sacrifice. I thought the reason should be obvious enough for you."

"So, basically, you don't want to make Falcon's search for us easier. But what about the blinding light earlier? Wouldn't that be noticeable to Falcon as well? It's even easier to see, too, seeing that it's night time..." Jeff said.

"Not to worry. I'm sure that Falcon is still too far away to notice us. Even if he does, we can only run anyway. Look." Marth looks back to see the lush forest that covers most of the land.

"Well... we have no choice but to go there, then."

Meanwhile, Link pats the depressed Samus's shoulder, trying to assure her that everything will be alright.

And so, the group walks into the forest.

As they walk through the forest, the only things that they're accompanied with are the environmental noises: cricket noises, the hoots of an owl, among others. After a couple of hours of walking, the group has gotten to the more open part of the forest, where they can see the clear sky sprinkled with the shining stars. A moon is also visible, and it's currently a full moon at that. Tall mountains covered in snow are also visible from their location as well. It's quite a breathtaking view for the group. Also, considering that they're now tired, they decide to rest at that spot, allowing them to enjoy the view longer. However, since they don't bring any kind of camping equipment, they can only make use of what the nature can provide. They can only gather fruits and seeds for feast, and if one wants to sleep, they can only make use of the fallen leaves.

Later that night, everyone is fully asleep, except for Samus, who is still holding the Super Mushroom trophy. She's reminiscing her times with Luigi, her first and true ally after her long, mostly-isolated life. She remembers his smiles, which somehow managed to break her lonely atmosphere. However, there's one notable memory that she hasn't realized until now.

The plumber in green once took a look at her only photograph, which simply depicts a portrait of her on a blue background. He then asked her why that photo being her only preserved memory from the past. That time, she only said nothing. Worried that he would anger her, Luigi then simply commented that she doesn't seem to like having her photo taken.

The truth is that it was taken as a congratulatory photo after her one notable feat as a bounty hunter back then, shortly before she quitted due to her wanting to focus more on research, in addition to isolate herself from the rest of the world even more. It's probably the reason why Samus didn't tell him the truth. She didn't want to be associated with her former job anymore, as well as people in general. But for the latter, she has realized that she had managed to befriend people from various places. Though not much, Samus herself is baffled that her long journey has given her more people to interact with. Her allies and even her enemies have made her open her mind to her surroundings.

"Very close bond..." Samus quoted what Falcon said in her previous dream.

"Was that the effect of my friendship with Luigi? I never understand it, but somehow I'm convinced that such bond, in turn, allowed me to open up to more of this world than ever. What a feeling..." Samus thought.

"However... I never get a chance to say thanks to him. He made me realize that I still need others... But, what if what Falcon said in my dream was true? What if that Luigi that I knew is an evil being sealed inside his kindness...? I still trust him... I think... I don't know which one is right anymore..."


	15. Chapter 14: All Tied Up

**Chapter 14: All Tied Up**

A couple of hours have passed. Samus is now sleeping like everyone else in the group. Apart from the usual environmental noises, nothing else is disturbing their slumber...

...except for a certain someone.

And his own cohorts.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside a cave in an unknown location, the plumber-gorilla duo Mario and Donkey Kong are simply doing their job, guarding the completely helpless and tied up Luigi. Mario himself has been staring at Zelda's scythe for quite a while, and he even occasionally looks back at Luigi, as if he can use the scythe to finish off his own brother. Donkey Kong is the one watching out for any trespassers, while poor Luigi appears to be asleep.

Suddenly, a drop of water from a stalactite falls right on Luigi, causing him to wake up. Realizing his situation that time, he begins to speak up.

"Brother... Is that what you're going for? After all this time... you wanted to end me..."

Mario's only response is simply a frown. He also appears to hold his scythe more firmly. Donkey Kong, meanwhile, simply doesn't care.

"...I see. So that's what you chose, huh..." Luigi said in a sad tone.

Mario then turns around to look at Luigi. Donkey Kong does the same. The plumber in red then walks closer to him. He places the sharp end of the scythe near his taller brother's neck, ready to kill him off.

In the middle of swinging up his scythe, however, Luigi closes his eyes while saying, "I'm... missing someone..."

Somehow, this makes Mario pause, keeping his scythe above his head. Apparently, what Luigi said reminds him of Zelda a little bit, someone that he and Donkey Kong happened to lose due to the war. Regardless of context, it managed to delay Luigi's death for quite some time.

Mario then questions him, "Are you missing that woman that you met in that forest back then?"

Luigi opens his eyes briefly and simply nods, then he closes his eyes again to prepare for his death. After a while, however, he's still alive and breathing. Mario has dropped the scythe on the rocky ground, feeling slightly down. Even Donkey Kong is confused about all this.

"What's wrong...? Aren't you going to behead me or something?" Luigi softly asked his brother.

"I really envy you now, Luigi."

"Huh?"

"In the middle of this entire crisis, you managed to make a new friend. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong and I still haven't gotten over Princess Zelda's death, which happened a long time ago..."

"Zelda?"

"Look, Luigi. Five years ago, you were forced into an army. I couldn't understand why it had to be you, but anyway... after our separation, Donkey Kong and I could only try to survive on our own after we were forced to leave the area we were in. It was until Princess Zelda recruited us to her castle some time later, and thus giving us a new home. She then took part on the war... but later on... she didn't come back. Anymore."

"She really sounds like a nice person to live with..."

"Indeed."

"...I feel bad for you..."

"I'm so sick of what this world has become, so I just have to resort to do anything until I finally die. This world is completely meaningless."

"But Mario..."

"Even after we've decided to work for Falcon, I just do it just because I don't care about anything anymore."

"Mario..."

"What now?!"

"You just acknowledged me having made a new pal, but... you can just do the same as well. I know that whatever happened before seemed harsh. Even I happened to lose my two close allies prior to meeting her. At least, there's still hope. All is not lost yet, brother."

"Hrm..."

"I also don't like the ongoing crisis right now, but we have to end it. I can't take it anymore as well. This can't go on forever!"

Mario can only stay silent. Even when Donkey Kong pokes his shoulder to question him, he won't answer.

"...However, it seems that you still only do whatever things you want. And that includes killing me. That's alright. I can accept that as well."

"No, Luigi. You're right. I once had a thought about trying to stop the crisis. In other words... I promised to Zelda back then. Wh-Why did I quickly abandon that promise...?" Mario covers his eyes, crying. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong pats the red plumber's shoulder lightly to try to calm him down.

"Mario..."

"That's it. I'm holding to my promise firmly now. I really HAVE to stop whatever's causing this crisis starting from now!"

Luigi smiles a bit. He's glad that his brother finally snaps out of it.

"Luigi, I might as well need your help. Donkey Kong, untie him!"

The gorilla is confused at first about this sudden change, but he obeys the red plumber anyway. He releases Luigi from the ropes, allowing the latter to finally stand up easily.

Mario then says to Luigi, "Let's work together as brothers." Then the two shake hands.

"To begin with..." Mario takes out his trophy from his coat's pocket. "Apparently, this trophy can pinpoint the location of someone that we want to look for. It's an unusual object, I gotta say."

"That trophy thing... that reminds me of the one found by Samus."

"Hm... Maybe she knows more than we do right now. Let's find that Samus person."

And so, the trophy glows and generates a trail of light that only Mario and Donkey Kong can see.

"What's going on? It just glows..." Luigi asked.

"You might not see it, but this trophy creates a trail of light that can direct us to where Samus is. All you have to do is simply follow us." Mario replied.

The trio then runs, following the trail.

* * *

Later that night, Samus feels as if she's lying down on cold hard ground. She also can't seem to move freely. It's only when she opens her eyes that she realizes that she has been kidnapped once again. She's completely tied up, which explains her being unable to move. As for lying on the cold hard ground, she's actually inside a murky, all-gray prison cell. The only light source in that place is the dim lights on the corridor.

"What's going on now?!"

Suddenly, a short figure shows up in front of her prison's bars. The darkness makes her hard to see, but the silhouette looks familiar. Upon a closer look, Samus can only gasp when she discovers her kidnapper.

It's that Knuckle Joe again.

"Hi there, my pretty. Seeing you helpless is just lovely." the spiky-haired creature greeted her.

"Not you..." Samus said.

"Still not happy to see me, it seems. Anyway, welcome to my dungeon complex. Just when you thought that I'm only good at power, I'm actually known for my wide underground dungeons that even span through a continent or two! And thus, it's really tricky for you to get out..."

Samus can only angrily stare at him.

"Anyway, I have a backup plan just so you can finally obey me. And no one, I repeat, NO ONE can stop me! All of your friends aren't nearby. Remember when I said that this part of my underground dungeon complex! I'm the only one who knows everything about this place, because I'm the one who designed it! Anyway, I'll be right back. Just be patient..." Prince Joe walks away, leaving Samus completely alone.

* * *

Now, Mario, Donkey Kong and Luigi are still running through the forest until Mario suddenly notices that the glowing trail points to the ground. Specifically, it points to a cluster of stones.

"Huh? Underground? Might as well try digging through." Mario said.

Donkey Kong, without any hesitation, begins digging, only to suddenly sink into the hole. The brothers then discover that the gorilla had managed to break through some sort of door, and the hole is an entrance. And so, the two plumbers go down as well.

Once arrived at the dungeon complex, the brothers help Donkey Kong get up. After that, Mario looks around until he finds the rest of the glowing trail, which points to one of the identical-looking corridors. He then asks the two to follow him through that way.

* * *

Back at Samus's cell, Prince Joe has come back with a metallic helmet with an antenna on it.

"Ta-da! Say hello to my mind control helmet! With this, you can no longer leave my side anymore!"

"No..."

"Now where's the key... Aha!" Prince Joe grabs a prison key from his pocket. He then proceeds to unlock Samus's cell, only to have his helmet stolen by a lasso. Shocked, he begins to panic, while another lasso takes away his key.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Prince Joe then rushes to the direction where the lassos came from. Unfortunately for him, he ends up getting beaten up by the unexpected trio.

After that, silence. A sudden one at that. Then, a worried Mario shows up in front of Samus's cell and promptly commands Donkey Kong to untie her. Samus is confused at the duo apparently helping her out despite being associated with Falcon from her view, but she thanks them anyway and tells them that the others are still in the dungeon. Mario then asks Donkey Kong to escort Samus back to the surface by backtracking through the same path they went when looking for her. During their escape, Samus discovers that Prince Joe is horribly bruised and probably won't notice her escaping. However, Luigi is nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Mario whispers to his trophy, wishing that he can find Samus's allies. The trail of light then points him to the direction opposite of where Donkey Kong and Samus went.

After a long time running through the many corridors, Mario begins to get tired. However, just when he is about to rest, the glowing trail points to a prison cell. Link is inside. Trusting his trophy, he unlocks Link's cell using the key that he stole and unties him. Link is just as surprised as Samus, then he notices the trophy that Mario is carrying. However, Mario has no time to talk to him and has to make haste, so Link can only follow Mario to continue on.

Suddenly, a muscular figure appears. It's Falcon, of all people.

Noticing that the situation is turning worse, Mario, without any hesitation, gives his trophy to Link.

"Well, well, well... I'm surprised that you of all people decided to betray me... And, Link, the Master of Trophies, this has been a long time since I've seen you last time. Isn't this a surprise? You're still against me, as usual. And what do I see here? That one rare trophy I thought I'd never actually seen it physically. Now, this should be the end of all your efforts!" Falcon prepares to grab Mario.

Realizing that Link might be capable of seeing the glowing trail, Mario shouts, "Trophy! Show the exit! ACK!"

The plumber's neck is held by Falcon, choking him. Being unable to fight due to losing his weapons after ended up in the dungeon, Link has no choice but to run away. Falcon is way too tough if he's fought empty-handedly.

"Heheh. Thanks to the newly discovered teleportation technology, now I can make this game of chase end much earlier than I thought. But first things first, I have to deal with you and your gorilla friend." Falcon said to Mario.

On Falcon's left wrist is a bracelet with a single button on it. Before Falcon uses it, he slams Mario to the ground and keeps the latter in place with his foot. He then pushes the button on the bracelet, enveloping both of them in a ball of light and making them disappear, teleporting both of them back to Falcon's place.

* * *

Back on the surface, Samus is looking at the hole, waiting for the others to come out, while Donkey Kong is further behind her, looking out for any potential dangers. Suddenly, Falcon shows up behind the ape and uses both of his hands to strangle the latter, while at the same time teleporting away quickly thanks to how he's placing his left wrist on the gorilla's neck, which is enough to hit the button on his bracelet. So, when Samus heard Donkey Kong's noises, it was already too late for her to notice him and Falcon as they've disappeared.

After a while, Samus then looks back to see Link who has just climbed out of the hole. He then reaches to his pocket and shows Samus the Smash Ball trophy, which is the one that belongs to Mario and Donkey Kong, meaning that they've encountered yet another trophy and its owners. However, when Samus questions Link about the others, he merely shakes his head. He doesn't know where the others are, and with the sudden appearance of Falcon in the underground dungeon, he's now unsure whether to go down there again or not, even with the help of the trophy to show him the way.

Samus, disappointed, then looks back to where Donkey Kong vanished. She looks at the ground to find yet another letter.

_IMPORTANT NOTICE_

_I decided to spice things up by using teleportation technology, so the chasing game can end much sooner, heh heh. However, there's a problem that I have to take care of, so consider yourself, the survivors, lucky. Unfortunately for you, I've managed to teleport myself and took the ones who didn't make it. Sooner or later, once the problem has been resolved, the game shall continue, and I shall win!_

_Sincerely,_

_Captain Falcon_


	16. Chapter 15: Samus and Link

**Chapter 15: Samus and Link**

The sun is rising, marking a new bright day for Samus and Link. They don't know where they actually are after the sudden kidnapping, but they have to think about the next course of action fast before Falcon suddenly warps to their place. Link looks at Mario's Smash Ball trophy and begins concentrating.

"What are we going to do now, Link? Go to Falcon's place? The letter implies that the others might be kept there... but there are only two of us here. I'm not sure if we can do it."

Suddenly, the trophy glows and generates a new trail of light that can only be seen by Link. With that, Link asks Samus to follow him. She doesn't understand why Link goes to that way, but she agrees to follow him anyway.

* * *

At Falcon's castle, the captain is standing in front of a large door, which opens.

"Heheheh... I finally did it. I managed to fully awaken the dark side of him. And now, he can only obey my orders."

Someone steps out between the open doors. It's Luigi. Wait, no, it's his other form, Mr. L. However, he now dons a dark blue beret with a yellow badge on it, a dark blue cape with yellow edges, a blue jumpsuit instead of the black one, and yellow boots similar to Falcon's. He still keeps his mask, bandanna and gloves. In addition to that, he now equips a bowie knife as his main weapon.

"Welcome to my army, Lieutenant L." Falcon gives a salute.

Mr. L salutes back.

* * *

After a long walk, Samus and Link have arrived in the middle of a desert. The morning sun is getting more intense, causing the two to begin sweating.

"A-Are you sure this is the way...?" Samus weakly asked.

Link only nods in response. He still puts his trust on the Smash Ball trophy to lead their way to Falcon's place.

Hundreds of meters have passed since then, and the two now begin to feel exhausted. However, Link is still sure that this is the better path to be taken. Samus begins to lag behind the hylian, causing him to walk back and hold her hand to keep her from being separated.

"At this point... I'm not even sure if what we're doing is right..." Samus said.

However, Link keeps pressing on, and soon enough, they find the coastline. From Link's point of view, the glowing trail points to the sea, meaning that they have to cross it, but there's no way of transportation and the lack of trees makes them unable to build a raft.

"It's the sea... there's nothing else."

However, Link shakes his head. He still trusts his trophy.

"Wait, you mean, we have to cross the sea...?"

The hylian nods.

"There's no way..." Samus is on the verge of collapsing.

Link keeps looking around for a way to continue their journey, but Samus is right. There's nothing to help them. The long trek through the barren sandy region is all for naught. Can't blame him for that, as they can't anticipate a faraway obstacle. And a big one, at that.

Suddenly, the trophy glows more intensely, as if signaling to whoever can see it. Despite during the bright daylight, apparently it managed to grab attention of something.

After briefly shielding his eyes from the light, Link looks to the far horizon to discover something swimming towards them. It looks like an orca, albeit it's blue in color. Once it's close enough to the duo, Link now recognizes what creature that is.

It's a legendary Pokémon called Kyogre, usually only known for resting deep under the ocean for centuries. The trophy is indeed still helping them find their way to their destination by awakening Kyogre. Shortly after the orca-like monster arrives near the shore, dark clouds begin to form, covering the mostly clear sky and thus providing a temporary shelter for the two until the Pokémon completely does its purpose.

Link walks on Kyogre's wide fin then jumps on its back. The weakened Samus can only reach out her hand so that Link can help her climb. However, since Link can't reach her either, Kyogre lifts up its fin where Samus stands on to launch her right on its back. Once both are seated on the Pokémon's back, Kyogre begins to leave the barren land. At the same time, rain begins to pour down.

* * *

Back at Falcon's castle, Falcon is watching Lieutenant L performing his killing skills at the open yard. He managed to throw his bowie knife right at a small bird dummy thrown from behind him, camouflage himself to blend with the wall and use that same skill to take out a human dummy from behind, set a sudden rope trap to strangle yet another dummy, and throw a grenade right at a hidden dummy. Obviously, Falcon is impressed at his skills. He feels that what he had done to poor Luigi was a success. Luigi is no longer himself anymore, but a pure murderer.

Falcon doesn't realize, however, that the dull gray sky turns darker due to being covered with more clouds, something that he might mistake for a normal weather change.


	17. FLASHBACK 01: FATHER

**FLASHBACK 01: FATHER**

_Running SubjectIdentifier..._

_..._

_Now loading..._

* * *

KRRZT... KRRZT...

Bzzt... bzzt...

.

..

...

Few decades ago, there lived a little girl in a small home. She had a happy family. Her neighbors were nice to her. The little village she lived in always seemed friendly.

One day, the little girl's father decided to tell her a folk tale known in the area they're living in. A folk tale about a princess who was a toy collector.

One day, all of the princess's toys were stolen. Her parents could only assure her that they would get her new ones, but she refused because she bought the toys with her own savings, her own money. And that was a lot, because she had bought many, many toys. All of those hard-earned savings, gone.

"That sounds sad..." the little girl said.

"Indeed, it does." her father replied.

"What will she do next?"

"Let me finish the story, alright?"

The next day since then, the young princess began to be visited by her friends who were going to donate some of their own toys to her. However, she refused. Her friends just stood in front of the castle door, confused at why she wouldn't accept her own friends' good quality toys. Suddenly, an old man came visiting, bringing a box of what appears to be many pieces of wood and cloth.

The old man said to her that she possibly considered her past toys having their own charm, what with them being bought with her own money despite her family's wealth. The man then said that it would be better if she could try her hand on making her own, thinking that it might give the same "charm" as her old toys.

At first, she had no idea what to do with the box that the man gave to her, but soon her creativity began to flow. She began borrowing tools from her parents and creating the many toys that mostly resemble her old ones, while also making new ones that she only imagined in her mind for a long time. And so, she now had focused less on collecting and more on creating new things.

"That's a nice story, dad." the little girl said happily.

"Hehe, it sure is."

"Do you think I can be like her too?"

"Listen. You can be anything you want, as long as you have the spirit like the princess in the story I've just told you. Regardless of what dream you're chasing, I'm sure you can do it, Samus..."

KRRZT... KRRZT...

Bzzt... bzzt...

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

_Subject identified!_

_Subject #2097_

_Begin questioning subject..._

_._

_.._

_..._

_\- Name? -_

"Samus Aran."

_\- Do you believe you're not alone? -_

"Yes...

...

...

...

...and no."

KRRZT... KRRZT...

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Krrrrrrrrrr...

Bzzt... bzzt...


	18. Chapter 16: Reunited

**Chapter 16: Reunited**

It's suddenly raining in the area where Falcon's castle is. However, being a freezing rain, the water droplets can potentially harm whoever's outside, causing Falcon to finally notice the harmful weather and alert every single one of his minions, including the guards. So, everyone is staying in the castle.

"The trophies... heheh. I thought that the, ehem, stray ones are just a myth, but here they are. I'm seeing them, right in front of my eyes." Falcon stares at the glass cases, each containing a trophy he managed to snag, one is the Super Mushroom trophy, while the other belongs to Jeff.

"Aren't these quite a treasure? And according to the myth, they have a hidden power of some kind. I guess that capturing you all also came with a jackpot for myself, hahaha!" Falcon said.

Meanwhile, Mario and Donkey Kong, the only ones who witnessed what Falcon said, can only sit in despair, as they're both tied up by the unbreakable chain that appears to be made of light.

"I don't know what power these two contain, but this is going to be exciting." Falcon spoke again.

Suddenly, Mario glares at Falcon and talks back. "Falcon, something isn't right in our world right now!"

"Grr..." Falcon walks towards the plumber in red, then he kicks his face, causing one of his teeth to fall out.

"I already commanded you to shut up! After I found out that you're now traitors, I can't take any single word from you!" Falcon angrily said.

Mario can only cough up the rest of the blood in his mouth. Even in that condition, he angrily glares at Falcon again.

"Now... if only I can find a way to harness whatever power these trophies contain..."

Suddenly, the rain stops. When Falcon notices this, he promptly says, "Hmph... consider my prisoners lucky this time. I knew I should've thrown them outside and let them freeze to death... but I can't. I have to find a way to brainwash them into obeying my orders."

Hearing that, the plumber-gorilla duo can only worry.

* * *

"...hrm...Huh?" Samus woke up. She managed to fall asleep during the trip due to her tiredness.

Link and Samus are currently staying in a cave shelter quite far from the continent they're going for. Kyogre actually did this for their safety, as the freezing rain near that region will end up doing more harm to those two. However, the cave there also functions as a tunnel that can take them to that continent. It'll be a long walk through, but they have no other choice but to go through that cave. Meanwhile, Kyogre dives back underwater, back to its hidden area where it can rest again for another century or so. Shortly after Kyogre left them, the disturbing weather stops and clouds begin to part away, allowing sunshine to properly warm things up once again.

After the brief rest, Link gets up on his feet and asks Samus to follow him. Samus, having no other second thoughts, stands up as well and tags along.

* * *

In a dark prison cell, Popo the blue ice climber can only sit and worry about Samus and Link, who are the only ones who are yet to be captured by Falcon.

"Samus... Link... I hope you two are okay..."

"Popo." Another voice is heard. It was Marth's. He's kept in a cell next to Popo's.

"I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Yeah. I believe in them. It's up to them now." Jeff spoke as well. In fact, Popo's cell is between Marth's and Jeff's, so he can still communicate with them easily.

Suddenly, a loud ruckus is heard. Two groups of Bob-ombs are carrying the tied-up Mario and Donkey Kong on their heads. Falcon also comes along. He opens a cell across Popo's and commands the Bob-ombs to throw the plumber and the gorilla into that cell. Afterwards, Falcon closes and locks the cell then leaves the prisoners.

Noticing the new inmates, Popo begins asking, "Who...?", only to be cut off by Mario saying, "Urk... I'm Mario, and this ape here is Donkey Kong."

Everyone else is surprised. This is the first time they've met those two in person.

"Aren't you the ones who were going to kill off Luigi according to Falcon's letter?!" Marth asked.

"Supposedly, yes." Mario answered.

"But what happened? Did Falcon just trick you into doing his dirty work?" Jeff asked them as well.

"Look, you three. We were loyal to Falcon. Were. After realizing that whatever the two of us were doing weren't worth it, we decided to betray him and spare Luigi from his supposed demise. However, he ended up... way worse. Urk."

"Worse? So let me get this straight. After you realized the, um, error of your ways, you decided to side with Luigi, only to be noticed by Falcon and then you end up being here, right?" Popo said.

"Yes. He _is_ my brother, after all."

"Brother?"

"It's a long story, but how the two of us betrayed Falcon was simply thanks to him convincing us to change. But, once again, Luigi ended up being worse... As in, he's no longer himself anymore..." Mario begins tearing up.

"You're... crying..."

"I just saw it. I really saw it. That Falcon had forcefully put him under stress and applied almost every form of physical and mental violence imaginable to him. And... Donkey Kong and I... were forced to watch..."

"...I don't think I want to stomach any of this."

"After that, he's now "reborn"... as an out-and-out murderer that can only be controlled by Falcon. Thinking about that again... it made me wish I could just follow Falcon's orders and kill him off instead of having him be like this..." Mario ends up crying, while Donkey Kong still can only look down in despair.

The other three prisoners can only sympathize with the plumber. It was such a hard way of losing one's relative, so hard that a quick death counts as a mercy kill that can possibly prevent that from happening.

Then, Marth speaks, "Mario, there's still a possibility to snap Luigi out of it. You see, we still have Samus and Link, who are our only last hopes, though we don't know where they are now..."

"Samus... and... Link? I remember those names... Samus is the one that Luigi is fond of... and as for Link, I think Falcon somehow knew him, and referred to him as the Master of Trophies or something like that. By the way, I forgot to tell you that the two of us, along with Luigi, managed to rescue Samus and Link from a certain... short brat... thing. Oh. Wait a minute..."

"What is it?"

"My trophy... I remember passing it to Link before I got taken away by Falcon! There's indeed still hope for them to find us! Not sure if they can handle the new Luigi... but at least there's some good news..."

"Alright! But... what's the significance of your trophy to all of this?" Popo asked.

"My trophy can generate a trail of light that can lead to the desired target, usually a person, from my experience. Only the holder can see it, but even then there are more restrictions to which person can do so. And when I heard what Falcon called Link as, I immediately gave my trophy to him, though he still couldn't save you on time, which is understandable because Falcon is now abusing those so-called teleportation technologies."

"No wonder..."

"However, since we can only do nothing here, we can only stay patient and hope that those two will arrive and rescue us before we end up being, urk, brainwashed."

"Are you serious?!" Jeff is surprised.

"Yes. Both of us just heard about that plan, straight from Falcon himself... It's a good thing that we're not left freezing to death outside, but still..."

* * *

In the execution chamber, a lone Hitmonlee is completely tied up, including his feet, which are known to be strong. He's tied up with the same "chain of light", which is extremely durable, and thus he cannot break easily with his feet.

Falcon and Lieutenant L then show up in the chamber.

"What a useless creature. Weak, unskilled, not worth for combat, even after a long hard training. Lieutenant L, you may commence the execution. Do what you can do best."

After saying that, Falcon leaves the chamber, leaving only Mr. L himself and the Hitmonlee. Mr. L picks up a stone with a sharp edge then uses it for the execution by destroying the poor Hitmonlee's face. After that, he uses his bowie knife to cut open the Pokémon's midsection and pulls out the latter's internal organs, starting with the intestines.

Just when Falcon is on his way back to his main room, loud noises are heard. It's the sound of his allies being taken down, as well as explosions.

"Darn it..." Falcon quickly rushes to his room.

Once he enters the room, he checks the monitors which are connected to the hidden cameras. One monitor shows Link throwing a bomb to a group of Bob-ombs, which causes a chain of explosions, while he and Samus rush to another corridor, which leads to the prison cells.

"Those two... I should've gotten my warp bracelet ready!" Falcon slams his fist to his desk in anger. He then dashes out from his room, ready to pursue Link and Samus.

In the dark prison corridor, the duo finally encounters the others as well as Mario and Donkey Kong.

"Link! Samus! You're indeed alright!" Popo happily exclaimed.

"Looks like we're not wrong when we trust you to rescue us." Marth said.

"Oh, it's you two, heh." Mario said.

"Glad to see you! Come on, use the switches over there!" Jeff points to the wall at the end of the corridor, which contains a control panel used to lock and unlock prison cells.

Without any further thinking, Link rushes to said control panel and forcefully removes the glass case. Afterwards, he pushes every numbered button there, which corresponds to which prison cell. He manages to unlock all of cells, as well as releasing Mario and Donkey Kong from the chains.

"Alright! We're all free! Let's get out of this murky place!" Popo said to the others.

When the group comes out from the stairs and runs into the nearby corridor, they end up stopping in their tracks as Falcon and his minions are blocking their way.

"Ow... really?" Popo complained.

"Link, you've already been my mortal enemy for a long time. But, you, that woman over there..." Falcon points to Samus.

"Falcon..." Samus said.

"You still seem to be that desperate in getting Luigi back from me, isn't that right?"

Samus clenches her fist.

"Everyone present here... let this woman, er, Samus, be in the spotlight, because it's up to her only..."

Falcon moves to his side to show Mr. L, who immediately throws a lasso made of Hitmonlee's intestines in an attempt to strangle Samus. Link catches it just in time before it reaches Samus. Then, he manages to pull Mr. L with it and flail him around until he falls back to his spot. Meanwhile, Mario whispers to Marth, Popo and Jeff about the other trophies. The latter three nod and follow Mario to take out all of the Bob-ombs present there. The smoke from the explosions causes a distraction and gives way to pass through Falcon's blockade, prompting Falcon to ask his two henchmen, Beedrill and Ness, to pursue those four. This leaves only Link, Samus and Donkey Kong from Samus's side.

"Isn't this nice? Some of your allies abandoned you." Falcon said.

"No. They know what they're doing. I'm still here for Luigi no matter what, while my other two allies are here to help me." Samus said.

"Well, then. If you insist that you three are capable for that... BRING IT ON!"

With Falcon also joining the combat, Samus's side has to make use of their only pure strength and skill as they lack weapons. Donkey Kong faces against Falcon, growling. The former attempts to throw a punch, but Falcon, being swift, dodges it by hopping backwards. Falcon then lands a free hit on the gorilla with a punch of his own to the latter's head, knocking him down. The fierce Mr. L tries to get closer to Samus, though Link keeps foiling the former's attempts by striking back. Samus herself mostly focuses on dodging incoming attacks, especially from Mr. L's. Falcon occasionally tries to take her out, but she is also on equal footing when compared to him in combat skills despite Falcon being tougher. The collapsed Kong suddenly gets up and tries to hold back Mr. L, but the latter starts violently struggling. Mr. L then repeatedly punches the gorilla's face until he's knocked out once again. Link, meanwhile, is already brutally wounded by Falcon's attacks. Samus has also gained some injuries as well. Falcon then knocks down the weakened Link then looks at Samus.

"Hah... hah... Who's going to help you now?" Falcon is tired from all that fighting.

"Ugh... It's only myself against two..." Samus thought.

Unlike Falcon, Mr. L is still as restless as ever. He glares at the injured Samus and begins to walk toward her. Seeing Mr. L, Samus takes a few steps backwards while sporting a fearful look on her face.

"Heheh... Now you're scared at the sight of your former friend!" Falcon exclaimed.

Mr. L gets his bowie knife ready.

"Luigi... Don't..."

"This should be the end of your life now!"

"Samus! Catch!" Marth, who is back at the corridor, throws the Super Mushroom trophy. It passes over Falcon and is caught by Samus.

"How can you...? Grr..." Falcon chases after Marth, who runs away, leaving only Samus and Mr. L.

Mr. L is now raising his knife, ready to stab Samus. Samus, looking at the trophy, remembers what Popo first told her about its ability of revealing Luigi's past memories. Hoping that such memory can be viewed by Mr. L, Samus offers him the Super Mushroom trophy, which makes him stop and lower his weapon.

"Here, take it." Samus said.

Mr. L snatches the trophy away then looks at it. Suddenly, a vision of the past is formed from Mr. L's point of view. It shows his various activities after Samus found him in the forest.

* * *

"Hey, Samus! Let's try something fun! I'll close my eyes while standing over there, and you go find your hiding place! After I finished my countdown, I'll go seek!"

"O...kay...?"

* * *

"Can I join? I'd rather warm up near this bonfire."

"Sure. Just be careful."

* * *

"Are you really happy living alone in a forest like this?"

"Um..."

"Well... You need other people too, you know?"

* * *

"I can't help but thank you for helping me out!"

"It's alright. I only want to help, after all."

"It's rare to see someone as kind as you!"

* * *

The very last memory echoes inside Mr. L's head, causing him to stay in place. Samus isn't sure if it actually works, but she steps closer to him just to make sure. He still doesn't move.

Then, he suddenly looks up, looking at Samus.

"Helping me out... Someone as kind as you..."

Samus is surprised.

"You are... somebody that I used to be allied with..."

Samus is still speechless.

"...I can't forget your kindness."

Samus begins to tear up, something that rarely happens to her.

"I had such sweet memories... Thank you..."

Samus suddenly says, "No, Luigi, I _have_ to thank you. You've changed my life. Without you, I wouldn't get to gain new allies and know my enemies... I consider you a valuable ally to me..."

"Hm. We've done good things to each other, it seems. I shouldn't forget you. I really shouldn't. I still have to thank you for reminding me of good things from my past..."

The teary-eyed Samus then hugs the plumber, who reverts back to his usual self.

"Samus... Don't cry..."


	19. Chapter 17: Regrouped

**Chapter 17: Regrouped**

"I-I'm sorry, Luigi. I... really shouldn't have cried... But..." Samus said.

"It's alright. Now... we should get out of here, shouldn't we?" Luigi said while giving the Super Mushroom trophy back to Samus.

Meanwhile, Marth is back at the corridor where Samus and Luigi is. Actually, he collapsed. His body is full bruises. Falcon shows up after that, who can only stare in shock and disgust.

"NO!" Falcon shouted.

Luigi looks back at the captain, bowie knife in hand. As the plumber glares at him, Falcon screams, "THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO STAY UNDER MY COMMAND!"

"I can do whatever my mind tells me to. Thanks to Samus, I finally recalled what I actually am." Luigi approaches Falcon.

The captain notices the trophy that Samus is holding, then he says, "It must be that trophy! Don't tell me that's the trophy's power!"

"I have almost no clue about trophies. It's something new for me. But... how about if I assume it to be... yes?"

Luigi then lunges towards Falcon, knocking him down to the floor, and begins stabbing him multiple times with the same knife that the captain gave him a while ago. Falcon fights back as well. However, even with the multitude of stabs on his body, Falcon can still struggle violently as if he's still physically fine. It ends with Luigi getting knocked backwards.

"That isn't normal... I even managed to stab his heart!" Luigi said.

"Grr... If you still think that you can defeat me, never get your hopes up! I'm invincible!" Falcon gets angrier.

Meanwhile, Marth struggles to get up due to his injuries. He then notices that Falcon's back is oozing some sort of black substance, despite Luigi not stabbing any part of his back. He tries to speak, but he can't.

_I can't talk... Urgh..._

"Now, you shall fall just like those two fools..." Falcon walks closer to Luigi and Samus, the former of which is shielding the latter.

Suddenly, a voice is heard.

"THAT'S NOT FALCON!"

It was Jeff, who has just arrived at the corridor once again, carrying his trophy with him, and promptly shoots the black substance on Falcon's back with his freeze ray. Once the goo-like substance is frozen, Falcon screams in pain and slowly turns back to face the opposite way. Marth, meanwhile, is relieved that someone else finally points out the suspicious goo.

"What do you mean that it's not Falcon? Oh!" Just when Samus asked, Falcon's back is exposed to her, allowing her to see the black substance. Meanwhile, Link and Donkey Kong finally regain their consciousness and get up to see Falcon's back.

"You there... It's nice that you've finally figured something out... But..."

Falcon's bruises and injuries caused by Luigi's knife begin to leak more of the black goo.

"I'M TAKING ALL OF YOU WITH ME!" Falcon then leaks more of the liquid substance, with the liquid itself pulsating, changing color between black and bright red as it does so.

"What is he doing?!" Samus asked.

"He's going to self-destruct! Not only will he destroy himself, his self-destruct will result in an explosion that can destroy this castle!" Jeff exclaimed.

"If that's the case, let's help the others get out." Luigi begins to help Link and Donkey Kong stand up. After that, Jeff himself helps the injured Marth near him get up.

"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!" Falcon screams. After that, all of his army of Bob-ombs and Beedrill appear from every room connected to the corridor the group is in. They all burst into the same liquid creature that Jeff happened to describe to Samus's group back then, albeit they're all blue and move slowly.

"So... those Bob-ombs and Beedrill aren't real either..." Jeff said.

Link then quickly pulls out Mario's Smash Ball trophy from his pocket and begins concentrating. The trophy glows and shoots out a beam that points out their escape route, while at the same time destroying the blob monsters that are on the way and repelling the others who aren't hit. Link then promptly dashes. Without any hesitation, the rest of the group follows him. Occasionally, Link has to wave the trophy to the approaching blob monsters that try to strike from behind, as someone like Marth moves slower than everyone else and has his movement assisted by Samus and Luigi. On their way, they also get to see the unpleasant view of the real Pokémon that "Falcon" happened to recruit being devoured by the blob monsters. As they have no time to stop their escape, they cannot save them, especially with the fact that there are a lot of these poor Pokémon, and several are too late to be saved anyway.

Once they get out of the castle, they suddenly realize that two people are missing from the group: Mario and Popo.

"Popo is just a kid... This can be considered to be the most horrible thing to happen to him..." Samus said in a sad tone.

"My brother... I can't believe he hasn't escaped yet..." Luigi said.

"At this point... they'll either die from those abominations or from the explosion..." Marth weakly said.

Back inside the castle, Popo is helping Mario walk out of the room they were previously in. Mario got brutally injured after fighting against Ness and the real Beedrill, while Popo got some bruises on his face. Unfortunately for them, the numerous blob monsters are advancing their way towards them.

"What are those things?!" Popo is surprised.

"I... I don't know..." Mario weakly replied.

*BOOM!*

The explosion happens, destroying the castle and everything inside. The survivors outside, meanwhile, end up being knocked backwards into the snow.

When Samus gets up, she shouts, "NO!"

Everyone else can only look at the burning castle.

Suddenly, something glowing is floating towards them. It's a ball of light that contains Mario and Popo inside, as if the light is a protective bubble that allows them to survive the explosion. The group can only stare in awe as the duo is finally placed on the ground. And that's when the group finally realizes where the possible cause came from: Jeff's trophy. In fact, it's actually glowing as that happened, but the bright fire from the burning building caused the group to focus more on the latter.

"So that's what my trophy does... protecting those two from imminent death..." Jeff said.

"Wow. That's really something. Thanks a lot for saving us, Jeff." Popo is grateful.

"I guess... those, er, trophies are really that special on their own..." Mario said.

"I'll tell you more about that later. First, we have to get something to heal the injured." Jeff said.

Fortunately, Link happens to carry some bandages in his pocket. So, the injured ones can make use of them to cover their bruises. Meanwhile, Samus is looking away at the snowy forest while still holding the Super Mushroom trophy. It's night time currently, with the sky being covered with a lot of stars that time. A moon is also visible. Luigi then approaches her and begins asking her something.

"What's wrong, Samus?"

"Huh? Um, it's nothing."

"Nothing, hm? Anyway... I just realized... what do you think of my new look?" Luigi points out that he still keeps the beret, cape, blue jumpsuit and yellow boots, which he got from "Falcon".

Samus doesn't say anything, though she shows a slight smirk.

"Don't these look awesome on me?" Luigi asked. He then laughs, like he usually does when he's happy.

After that, Luigi begins talking again.

"But, you know... I actually questioned myself about Falcon."

"Hm?"

"As in, shouldn't he have died long ago?"

This sparks a considerable interest from the others, causing Popo to blurt out, "Wait, what? What do you mean about that?!"

"Oh. Everyone. I hope you like listening to my story for just a short while." Luigi notices that the others are looking at him.

"No problem at all. Go on." Marth said.

"Alright. Here's from what I remembered back then. During a battle that cost both of my allies' lives, I believe the fight ended with Falcon falling off a cliff with a huge log following his fall. From that size, it should be powerful enough to kill him. I could see what happened down there. He fell right to a solid ground down there, and the log clearly landed right on top of him. He should've been dead, but somehow he made a sudden comeback much later on and captured me..."

"That's interesting. I'm going to assume that he's one tough guy." Popo commented.

"However, keep in mind that the same Falcon we saw in his castle wasn't him at all, despite his appearance." Jeff said.

"Indeed. He has that black substance coming out of him. And that substance... it reminds me of the liquid that came out from the meteorites." Samus said.

"If my hunch is correct, then it is possible that the Falcon in the past actually _did_ die, but the black substance managed to find their way to his dead body, thus either reviving him or creating a clone of him."

"But he had normal blood coming out too, so I can't assume the latter. Even then, I guess the former seems to be very likely. Oh, wait a minute..." Luigi said.

"What is it?"

"I think I've made a close contact with such liquid before... I think I remember sleeping next to some. I thought it was oil back then. How wrong I was..."

"When you think about it, I think that's why the trophy can snap him back..." Samus said.

"Now that makes sense!" Jeff exclaimed.

"Hm?"

"Luigi's, um, dark side, is actually part of the liquid abominations' intentions of trying to convert him, but he's still alive and well, so back then he could control himself but not anymore when he was made into Falcon's ally. And keep in mind that when Link used Mario's trophy, the light instantly eradicated those blob creatures which got in the way. They're indeed weak to these trophies."

"I see. So that's why..." Mario realized.

"Had you follow Falcon's any further orders, you'd make the situation worse than what happened back then. As in, the same thing can happen to you if the black liquid can find its way to you!"

"Indeed. I'm actually glad that Donkey Kong and I decided to stop working for Falcon altogether. After all, we already promised to ourselves that we have to find a way to stop this world's crisis."

"And we have to do it quickly, as there are more of these creatures now. We have to rely on Smash Tower to fully eradicate those beings."

"Agreed. We have to destroy all of those creatures before it's too late." Popo said.


	20. Chapter 18: Backup Squad

**Chapter 18: Backup Squad**

"Not so fast!" a voice is heard.

Suddenly, Samus's group is now surrounded by a group of seven.

"I'm Lakitu. You don't want to see me mad." the first member spoke, who juggles a spiky creature on his hands. Lakitu is the most moody of the group. He can deliver tough melee combat skills.

"My name's Ashley. Welcome to your death, hm?" the second member takes one step further towards the group. She's very capable of using her wand both for magic and for close-range combat.

"I'm Little Mac. Don't underestimate me just because I look weak!" the third member spoke. Despite his short stature and his tendency of carrying a book, he's on equal footing with the other six, meaning that he's really tough.

"I am Resetti. Looks like you'll suffer soon." the fourth member is an anthropomorphic mole who is often seen with an angry expression. Despite that, he's a critical thinker and can take advantage of his enemies' weaknesses well.

"Heehee... I'm this group's second-in-command, Pinky." the fifth member looks like a typical bedsheet ghost, though she's pink and wears a pair of light purple gloves. Pinky can lure her opponents with her cute look then attack them mercilessly. As she mentioned, she's the group leader's right-hand woman.

The sixth member is a Labrador Retriever. Nothing special, just an ordinary dog, though it's more fierce than a usual Labrador. Facing Samus's group, the dog growls and barks.

Lastly, there's the group's leader, Dark Samus. Seeing her, Samus can only say, "No... she shouldn't be still alive..."

"You know her?" Popo asked.

"Yes, but I won't tell anymore about it."

"Why?"

"None of your business."

"Isn't this sweet? The woman over there happens to know our leader, teehee!" Pinky gleefully said.

"Enough! Why are you here?!"

"Let me speak out to you. You see, the seven of us here were hired by Captain Falcon. We were told that we're supposed to kill you, though he kept us waiting for God knows how long. He then said to us that in case his plan is failing, we're allowed to strike!"

"Falcon's dead, so there should be no more purpose of you trying to kill us!" Marth exclaimed.

"Marth, Samus, listen up." Jeff said to those two.

"What is it?" Samus looked back.

"Remember what I said about Falcon being revived by that mysterious liquid? That group's leader over there might not be real too. She might be trying to convert us into more of those creatures!"

"Oh, I see. Well, that makes my reasoning pointless." Marth said.

Pinky is confused at what they're saying, they she says, "I don't get what you're saying, but anyway, shall we do an all-out attack, leader?"

Dark Samus nods in the affirmative. After that, she readies her arm cannon.

"Alrighty, then. Everyone, attaaaaaack!" Pinky shouted.

The fight quickly ensues. Samus, obviously, fights against her dark lookalike. Even without her weapons and armor, she can still fight quite well, though Dark Samus can't really get injured due to her armor, so Samus herself focuses mostly on trying to knock her dark lookalike down, or at least have Dark Samus accidentally hit her allies. Meanwhile, Mario fights against Lakitu, but it feels more like a two-versus-one situation as Lakitu is accompanied by the spiky creature, Spiny. The Spiny is quite fast, and thanks to its spikes, trying to jump for whatever reason is never a good idea. Mario spends most of his time trying to get closer to Lakitu while at the same time having to avoid that annoying Spiny. Until suddenly, the Spiny is hit by one of Dark Samus's stray shots, paralyzing it briefly before it ends up getting frozen by Jeff's freeze ray.

"What the-? Grr..." Lakitu gets angry.

"Looks like we're now even. HYAAAHH!" Mario lunges forward to strike the goggles-wearing turtle.

Popo is almost smacked by Ashley's wand. All Popo can do is dodging anyway, as he has no weapons at his disposal.

"Now's the time when I realize that I should've brought my hammer with me..." Popo complained.

"Rule number one of travels: Always bring your most important needs with you, kid." Ashley keeps swinging her wand, which is now imbued with dark magic.

Meanwhile, Donkey Kong tries to fight against Little Mac, but the latter ends up dodging every punch the former throws at him. Once Little Mac gets right behind him, the book-holding boxer delivers a hard punch to his back, knocking him down.

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall, they say? Not on my book!" Little Mac said.

Mr. Resetti is flailing his pickaxe at Marth. He specifically targets Marth's only hand. Marth himself can only hop backwards every time the mole attempts to injure his limb.

"Move here, you coward!" Resetti exclaimed.

"Move towards you? Well, let's see if you can take this!" Marth quickly dashes to Resetti's side and manages to kick him from his left.

"Urgh... Why didn't I predict that...?" Resetti collapses on the ground. "Ouch! OW!" he's then stomped mercilessly by Marth.

"That's what you get from trying to take advantage of someone less perfect than you!" Marth said to the wounded mole.

"You're pathetic, Resetti!" Pinky complained. She's then suddenly struck by Luigi's knife, but, being a ghost, it doesn't hurt her at all.

"Oh. Well, well, well. You thought that I'm some sort of a floating blob. It takes someone as idiotic as you to not figure what I'm supposed to be!" Pinky slaps Luigi on the face, which is just as pathetic as a typical slap, even more so when one considers that Pinky is a really capable fighter.

"Ow... But how about explaining that slap?! If I can't hit you, you shouldn't be able to hit me either because you're a ghost! Sure, I can be stupid at times, but at least I tried once!"

"My rules are not your rules, teehee!"

Pinky then notices that the Labrador has been completely tied up. It can't bite because its mouth is tied shut, and it can't move around freely because its legs are tied up as well. Link is the one who did it.

Suddenly, an energy shot is fired to the brawling group, causing everyone involved to switch their attention to the source, which is some sort of robot.

Dark Samus and the rest of her group recognize the robot. Pinky says, "Master..."

Meanwhile, a voice from another direction interrupts the group as well.

"I've finally found you!"


	21. Chapter 19: Ray MK III

**Chapter 19: Ray MK III**

The robot that interrupted the brawl begins to descend to the ground, while at the same time a red-haired swordsman is rushing towards the group. Upon a closer look, the robot is revealed to be far shorter than Samus's group expected, as it stands at about 12 inches. It has a blue and white color scheme and red appendages that function as its wings. When the swordsman also gets to see the robot, he readies his sword.

Of all people present there, only Samus seems to recognize the swordsman. "Huh? Isn't he...?"

The swordsman begins to charge towards the short robot, while the latter begins firing laser shots, which are dodged by the man while he still dashes to his target. The swordsman then performs a sword slash, with the sword's blade now wreathed in flames, though it's also dodged, leaving both fighters still unscathed. Seeing the sudden fight, the two different groups can only watch in confusion, especially Dark Samus's group, as they've never seen the red-haired swordsman before.

When the fight stops, Lakitu, one of Dark Samus's cohorts begins to speak up, "...Hey! How dare you strike our master like that?!"

The swordsman doesn't answer. But then, noticing that Samus is present among other people, the swordsman finally decides to speak up. He first approaches Samus, then tells her, "Sorry for suddenly diverting my attention away from giving a proper introduction. Now... I believe that you still remember me, hm?"

Everyone else is surprised. Samus knows that she had seen the swordsman before, but she feels unsure about when she met him and what his name is.

"Hmm... I guess you've forgotten me already. I'm Roy. I met you in your dream a long time ago, remember?" Roy reintroduces himself. This surprises everyone else even more.

"Oh. It's you. Never thought I'd see you in person." Samus said.

"Same here. I was going on a long journey, and here I am."

Suddenly, Pinky says something to Roy. "I'm sorry. But you still haven't answered my pal's question about why you suddenly attacked our master..."

"Hmph. Why would it matter? I've been destined to fight against it."

The robot's name is called Ray MK III. Its origin is unknown, but it is said that it was man-made. Even then, who created Ray remains unknown as well. Roy's first encounter involving Ray happened in a city, where the latter managed to rescue a citizen from getting run over by a school bus before the former arrived. Seeing the potential for helping him in his jobs, Roy tried to get Ray to join his alliance. However, the robot refused, then proceeded to attack him with a volley of lasers. After that, intense battle ensued, something like what happened after Ray interrupted the fight between Dark Samus's group and Samus's group, only in a bigger scale. Their fights in that city managed to destroy buildings and killed people they supposed to keep safe. It ended with Roy getting trapped underneath the rubble of a ruined building, while Ray disappeared. Fortunately, he was rescued by his own allies, but they were late to the battle itself. And that's what drove Roy's motivation on defeating Ray MK III.

Back at the current situation, Ray MK III suddenly points at something, prompting everyone else to look at what it's pointing to. It points to Samus, specifically her held trophy.

"I get it." Roy said. "It wants that."

"What 'that'? This trophy?" Samus asked.

"I guess so."

"Excuse me, but you should get out of our sight and actually let our master sort things out." Ashley said to Roy.

"...Why are you calling it your master? It doesn't deserve to be a trustworthy ally."

"Our master trained us, and since Captain Falcon hired it that makes us being hired to kill that woman's group as well."

Ray MK III then makes a gesture as if it's asking for a fight against Roy only.

"Huh. That's settled then."

"What?" Samus asked.

"That robot, Ray, wants your trophy, correct? And since it has to go through me first, it asked for a battle between me and Ray only. None of you, from either side, are allowed to help me or Ray in any way. Also, neither group should attack each other during our battle just so we're not distracted. The victory of one of us will determine whether the trophy will go or stay."

"Teehee! That's cute. But you really, really can't mess with our master!" Pinky gleefully said.

And with that, Roy steps forward and readies his sword once again, while Ray floats slightly. The two then charge at each other, with the impact causing them to get knocked back. Roy then prepares for another flaming sword slash, while Ray fires an explosive shot to the ground. The smoke from the explosion disrupts Roy's sight, which, combined with the robot's small size, makes it difficult to find his target. A laser shot suddenly hits Roy's right hand, causing him to drop his sword and clutch his injured hand with the other. When he discovers that Ray is attacking from behind, Roy surprises it with a kick that it's too late to dodge from, launching it away. As the smoke clears, Roy picks up his sword with his left hand and begins searching for the robot again. Ray is flying behind him again, though much further away. It then fires another explosive at Roy, which he noticed, causing him to quickly sidestep away, though the explosion's blast causes him to get knocked down after said sidestepping. Ray then quickly fires another volley of lasers, which Roy quickly dodged from by rolling sideways. The latter then gets up and begins thinking how to work his sword attacks with his left hand. Meanwhile, Ray begins to charge towards him again, prompting him to do the same just so he can pierce the robot with his flaming sword.

However...

Just when the two are about to collide with each other, a lightning bolt strikes both fighters, destroying Ray and leaving Roy paralyzed. More lightning bolts struck the ground and any other part of the environment, so the others have to find a safe place or shelter to protect themselves from the sudden lightning bolts. Suddenly, Dark Samus is struck by a lightning strike, weakening her and exposing her true form, a blue blob monster not too different from the ones that disguised as Falcon's army of Bob-ombs and Beedrill. Shortly after, all of Dark Samus's allies end up burst into the same blue blob monster. Then, all of those creatures flee from the location.

After all of that, no more lightning bolts striking. Samus and her allies managed to survive. They then quickly approach the still-paralyzed Roy on the ground.

"Do you think he would remain alive?" Popo asked.

"A lightning strike like that can kill a person. I think he won't survive..." Jeff replied in a worried tone.


	22. Chapter 20: Evil Princess

_**Author's Note: Why am I still writing this bad/boring/bland/mediocre thing? Yes, this is called a thing.**_

**Chapter 20: Evil Princess**

Someone is walking up to Samus's group. She looks short, and appears to be an anthropomorphic yellow dog. She wears pink ribbons on both of her ears, dark pink robe, pink long-sleeved shirt adorned with red ribbons, a yellow belt with a heart-shaped emblem on it, and pink short skirt.

"I should've been here first, hm?" the dog spoke, surprising Samus's group.

"Oh! What funny faces! Before you ask, it was me who summoned those lightning bolts. Is that redhead a friend of yours? If that's so, then my apologies. Don't worry about him. My lightning bolts are pure magic and won't really kill a person... unless I wanted to..." the dog explained while still wearing the innocent smile.

"You definitely seem like you wanted to kill Roy..." Samus said.

"Huh. So the redhead's name is Roy? Good name, but not as good as mine! Anyway, I can remove my magic's effects from him. Watch."

The yellow dog waves her left hand. Said hand gradually glows green, then once it becomes intense enough for everyone nearby, including herself, to slightly cover their eyes, the dog launches the generated magic to Roy's paralyzed body. A few seconds after that, Roy makes a slight movement, indicating that, yes, the dog can heal him.

"Urrrgghh..." Roy struggles a bit to get up. "I'm still alive, apparently... Heh."

Popo then proceeds to thank the dog, "Wow! Thank you for helping him, um... what's your name?"

"My name's Isabelle. I'm the princess of a faraway kingdom. Which kingdom? It's classified."

Samus then says, "Listen. Even after what you did, I still can't tolerate you for paralyzing Roy and almost causing us to suffer the same fate."

"Samus!" Luigi exclaimed. "That's not a nice thing to say!"

"Your mustached friend seems to be correct. 'That's not a nice thing to say' indeed... Heh. While I'm at it, I want your friend. He's really nice, compared to you." Isabelle said.

"...Wait. Don't tell me..." Samus said.

"Well, well, well. I'm guessing you've already raised enough suspicion about me... Samus. Yep, I already knew your name before your best friend mentioned it in front of me..."

Samus begins to hold on to Luigi's shoulders. The others, feeling uneasy and confused at the same time, can only watch the whole situation.

"Don't be so tense! I can let you get off scot-free! Here's how. Samus, you have to let go of Luigi. If you don't comply, then I'll first torture you with my wonderful lightning bolts. Why torture? Because I'll heal you, then make you suffer again until you finally give in! Or if you're still really stubborn, then I'll just finish you off. How's that? It's that simple!" Isabelle explained.

"Don't worry, Samus, we've got your back." Marth said. Mario and Donkey Kong nod in support.

"Even with more Falcon followers like her, it is possible for us to escape!" Jeff said.

"Falcon? You're kidding me, right?! I never chase down falcons. Even if those falcons are as intelligent as myself, they're often too inferior for my liking!"

"I'm sorry, angry, eh, princess. 'Falcon' here, Captain Falcon, refers to someone that I used to work with, but now I despised him. He's in pursuit of my brother, so we all assume you're part of his alliance." Mario said.

"Eh. I don't know anyone named Falcon. Let alone a Captain Falcon. I'm just doing this on somebody else's request."

"A request?! From whom?" Samus asked.

"Let's just say that he has been waiting anxiously since I showed up. Welp, it's your cue now, my client! Sorry about this." Isabelle raises her right hand to signal her client to come out of hiding.

The bush not far from the place the group is in begins shaking, driving their attention to it. Then, the client reveals himself. It's Prince Joe.

"Grrrr... I thought hiring someone like you would make things easier for me." the egoistic prince said.

"No... Not you again!" Samus exclaimed. Luigi can only stay clueless as he has no idea what's going on now. Meanwhile, Link draws his sword in response, ready to strike if something goes horribly wrong.

"First things first, I'm still not over it. You're the perfect companion for me, Samus. My fate relies on you, and I'm afraid that my life and my kingdom will be miserable if you don't rule along with me. I mean, come on! It's not that bad!" Prince Joe angrily said.

"I will never be a companion for someone as horrendous as you!" Samus shouted back at him.

"Ugh. Listen up, all of you. After two failures, I tried the third one by hiring someone good enough to kidnap you, Samus. How do I pay Isabelle back? By having your so-called loyal companion being given to her just to balance it out! After all of that, she will proceed to destroy the rest of you who aren't part of my plan, peasants! But unfortunately, Isabelle found you at the wrong time, but it won't matter since she's powerful enough to wipe you out!"

"And that's that, everyone." Isabelle said. "Now I can proceed with the real thing. Samus, leave with Prince Joe. As for you Luigi, you can go with me. I promise you that you'll get much better life compared to being with her."

"This is pretty much death sentence to us." Marth said.

"Regardless of Samus's response, it is very likely that all of us will be killed anyway, while Samus and Luigi are very likely to live miserable lives!" Mario said.

"Er, Samus... What are you gonna do?" Luigi asked.

"I'm really jealous of your relationship, Samus. You worked hard with your allies to get Luigi from a certain base, which I now know as Falcon's base thanks to two of your friends mentioning his name. I wish I was the one doing the rescue instead. That would make things much better! But alas..." Isabelle begins charging up her lightning magic.

"So... what's your answer? Give up Luigi and live a better life with Prince Joe, or die together with those losers you call 'friends'?" Isabelle gives one last question.

"Urk... what to do?" Samus begins contemplating. "...Regardless of my answer, Popo and the others will die horribly. I want them to stay alive after all this. What should I do...?" Samus thought.


	23. Chapter 21: The Reveal

**Chapter 21: The Reveal**

Time suddenly stops, but Link is the only one aware of the situation. A black blob-like being suddenly appears out of thin air, right behind Isabelle and Prince Joe. It then instantly disintegrates both by piercing its appendages through them, removing them from existence. Seeing this, Link leaps forward to attack, but gets launched far backwards by the blob creature's flailing tentacle. Before Link gets up, the blob-like being then consumes the helpless Luigi, then disappears, but not before showing the dreaded face of Captain Falcon to Link. It all happened very quickly and Link was too late to strike back. A few moments later, time resumes itself, which leaves Samus's group surprised at the disappearance of Isabelle, Prince Joe and Luigi. Especially Samus, who ends up standing still, speechless.

"What was that?" Marth wondered.

"I have no idea. It's like those two suddenly disappeared in a split second. No, not split second, probably in a split millisecond! I mean they suddenly disappeared without a trace." Jeff said.

"It's not just those two! Luigi is now gone too!" Mario exclaimed.

"Oh, no! Samus, Samus! Do you have any idea of what's going on?! ...Miss Samus?" Popo asked in panic, but suddenly notices that Samus still keeps the same "shocked in despair" expression. "Samus..."

"I... didn't just see that... right? It wasn't an eye trickery, right? Luigi... He... disappeared right in front of my eyes... But there's nothing... nothing that indicates him being taken away... This must be a horrible dream... right?"

"Oh no..." Popo said.

After helping Roy finally get up to his feet, Mario and Donkey Kong finally notice Link standing much further away behind the group. Link appears to be feeling some sort of regret, as seen by him simply staring to the ground in despair.

"Hey, Link. What are doing back there? I thought you were with us. Hm? What's wrong?" Mario asked.

The others, except for Samus, then turn back to see Link after hearing Mario's question.

"Hmm..." Popo looks back at Samus, then back at Link. "Link, did you just see something related to Luigi's disappearance? Your expression just says 'I failed' to me."

Link weakly nods.

"WHAT?! If you happened to see it, then what was it?!" Marth shouted at Link.

"Don't rush. Give him a moment." Roy said to Marth, trying to lessen the tension of the situation.

As usual, Link doesn't say anything, which obviously doesn't resolve the problem they are in. Popo, someone that Link knows better, decides to walk towards him, asking him to whisper about what he saw. After Link whispered to Popo, Popo suddenly backs off in horror.

"What's the answer, Popo?" Jeff asked.

The scared Popo says, "It was the blob creature."

"WHAT?!" everyone but Samus is shocked. Samus herself, meanwhile, begins to perk up from the brief despair and slightly looks to her back.

"There's still one around here?! But where? We can't even see it! Luigi and those messed-up royalties were simply... gone." Jeff said.

"Urk... Apparently, the blob creatures are getting more powerful. Because this time, as an example, the blob monster that Link saw managed to stop time and teleport itself right behind the duo."

"What? Really?"

"Yes. And now you must be wondering how the three disappeared without a trace and in a sudden."

Everyone else nods.

"Because of the time-stopping power, it manages to do the following things without being spotted easily, except by Link. The two baddies were pretty much erased from existence by getting pierced..."

"Luigi..." Samus weakly said.

"Huh? Samus?"

"Was he erased the same way as those two...?"

"Urk... I don't know if I consider this a better fate or worse, but Link said to me that when frozen in time, the blob creature simply ate Luigi and took him away. At least that's what it looked like according to Link... But I guess it's actually not any better, or probably even worse... because the blob creature taunted Link before disappearing."

"..."

"Gulp... It feels uneasy for me to mention the dreaded name again... but the blob creature formed Captain Falcon's face..."

"NO!" Samus begins clutching her head and crying. She finally lost it.

"Woo boy... Look what you have done, kid. She's heartbroken now." Roy commented.

"There's no time for anything funny!" Marth angrily said.

"Popo." Jeff said.

"Huh?"

"One thing interesting to me is that you just nonchalantly said that only Link was immune to the frozen time. What was that about?"

"Oh! I'm sorry that I haven't told you this for a long time, but Link was never sure that I should reveal the truth..." Popo then looks back at Link. "Link, are you okay with your real identity being uncovered?"

Link, having no other choices, simply nods in the affirmative.

"Alright, then. Now listen, everyone!" Popo said to the entire group.

"I think it's about time that I have to tell you the truth about Link here."

"Okay. Just spit it out." Mario said.

Popo then begins explaining. "I'll start with the most important thing. Link is a living trophy."

"Wha-? Link doesn't even look like a trophy!" Marth is confused.

"Are you for real, kid?" Mario asked.

"Living trophy? Now that sounds interesting." Jeff commented.

"Eh. I can tell you a bit about living trophies..." Roy said.

"Oh. You know about those too?" Popo asked.

"Yes, I do. I can explain better."

"Well... go on, I guess."

"Living trophies are just that, trophies that were brought to life by the power of Smash Tower in case if the world is doomed yet the tower is unable to do anything to avert the situation. Those trophies are well-guarded by the tower itself, as they represent important aspects of this Smash world. So, basically, someone like Link represents time, since he's unaffected by the frozen time. The living trophies' role is to help guide the key trophy holders to the associated key trophy as well as finding said key trophies themselves. You may wonder why those small trophies are scattered throughout the region. Since I'm assuming that it's relevant to what it's going on right now, I'll just say that it's for Smash Tower's safety. Blue-parka kid..."

"Um. That's Popo. You've heard my name mentioned a few times already..."

"Well, whatever, Popo. But hear me out, you said that Link mentioned about that blob monster getting more powerful, right?"

"Yes...?"

"There's a clear cause for that. The blob monsters have absorbed the power from Smash Tower by consuming the trophies placed there. Sure they were weak to them the first time, but after some time have passed, their numbers finally have overcome the power of the trophies in the Smash Tower itself, thus enabling them to gain additional power by absorbing the trophies, which are the ones supposed to repel those creatures. The key trophies are no different from other trophies, but in order to make the key trophies being useful inside the tower, it requires the holders to be really determined to not see the world ending too soon. That's why only certain people can make use of those key trophies, like that Smash Ball one you're holding." Roy points to Mario and his Smash Ball trophy.

"Wait, wait, wait. Roy, you seem to know so much. But it gives me more questions than answers. Especially the very concept of living trophies. If they represent a certain aspect of this world, then why can't they just wipe out those blob creatures themselves?" Jeff asked.

"Why, you ask? Living trophies, once brought to life, function mostly like normal people. I mean, like, Popo, have you seen Link time-travelling?"

"Nope. Ever since Link started living in my house, I haven't seen him do that. But if not in front of me... I don't know..."

Link then suddenly shakes his head, indicating that he never does so.

"See? Even though the only power left is immunity to a certain aspect as well as the ability to use the trophies, living trophies aren't THAT overpowered." Roy said.

"That still leaves more logic holes to me, because I have more questions." Jeff said to Roy.

"Hehe, I guess that's enough for that. But most importantly, now you know the basic concept of living trophies, yes?"

Everyone else except Popo and Link simply looks at each other, still a bit perplexed about the concept, but at least they know about Link being an aspect of Smash Tower, and by extension, the Smash world itself.

Suddenly, Samus begins asking Roy. "...Roy, as Jeff mentioned before, you know a lot about these things. How did you know all of that...? Even Popo won't get as far as you when it comes to giving trophy-related explanations..."

"Heh. That's simple. I'm a living trophy myself, specifically the one that represents space."

"WHAT?!"

"No need to be THAT surprised. I mean, I've been living like a normal person ever since I was summoned into this world, which is actually kind of fun if you ask me."

Link simply shakes his head in disbelief.

"Roy... if you're a living trophy, you should've done something important..." Popo said.

"Oh, come on... I don't have much time to live until you all save the world or something."

"We have our own lifespan too, Roy." Marth said.

"Welp... Looks like I'm going to assist you. For real this time. I won't slack off. I mean, I was pretty good at my battle against Ray MK III, right?"

"Now that part doesn't sound too normal to me... The battling part you mentioned, I mean." Jeff said.

"Roy, one more thing." Samus said. "You mentioned that the blob creatures can now safely devour the trophies, but what about the one explained by Popo? As in, the one who took Luigi from me. ...Look at us. Our trophies remain unscathed."

"Hmm... Now this is a special case. I don't know if it's something like this. Sorry." Roy answered.

Popo then suddenly says, "Hey. Let's visit Nana!"

"What? Who?" Mario asked.

"Nana is an outstanding explorer. I believe she knows about almost every possible point of interest in the world. It won't hurt to ask her about this crisis and the relevant locations. Who knows that we can gather some hints about the blob monster that took Luigi." Marth said.

"Yep, just as explained by Marth. Well, both of us know her, but I hope she doesn't change her base this time. Last time I saw her, she mentioned that she's planning to place her base near a beach. Unfortunately... we're so far away, I don't know where to go anymore."

"Not to worry, kid. We've got this." Mario said as Donkey Kong holds up the Smash Ball trophy.

Meanwhile, Samus simply thinks, "Luigi... I know that you won't disappear... Please stay fine... Don't disappear so soon..."


	24. Chapter 22: Nana

_**Author's Note: I gotta admit that writing this thing is a good stress reliever no matter the result.**_

**Chapter 22: Nana**

It has been a long trip. Days have passed. Various environments have been passed by. Samus's group alternates between walking and stopping every few hours because of said long trip. They can only rely on the Smash Ball trophy for now. Despite the long journey, they fortunately haven't encountered any problems related to the mysterious blob creatures.

Another few days later, the group has finally arrived near a beach. Said beach contains nothing but sand and the vast blue sea further away. The Smash Ball trophy's trail of light still points to a location somewhere nearby. If what Popo said previously can be counted on, that means that Nana's base hasn't moved from the spot.

As the group keeps walking, they arrive near what appears to be a hut. From Donkey Kong's point of view, his trophy's light is pointing to the inside of the hut, meaning that Nana might be there. Before anyone can go in, however, Popo interrupts the others and asks them to wait, as he wants to greet Nana first.

The blue ice climber steps into the hut.

"…Hello?"

"Huh?" the hut's inhabitant heard Popo's voice.

"Ehem. Excuse me…?"

The inhabitant, a young ice climber much like Popo, albeit female and wearing pink, turns back to see Popo at the entrance.

"Wha-? Popo?!"

"Nana! It's really you! Thank goodness…"

"Sigh… I never thought you can find me here despite the fact that I only gave you a vague location. By the way, who are those people behind you?"

Popo looks back briefly, then looks at Nana again to explain. "Those people? They're, um, travelers that I accompany."

"Huh?"

"Listen, Nana. You may feel suspicious, but this is really important. We're currently on a mission to find all key trophies so that Smash Tower can wipe out all anomalies which are the mysterious creatures that want to destroy our world. It may sound outrageous, but please... help us…"

"Key trophies? Smash Tower? Mysterious creatures?"

"I'm sorry that you have to listen to all of that, but we really need your help right now."

"Hmph. While I do quite understand about trophies and Smash Tower, I haven't seen any mysterious creatures that you claim they'll destroy this world… We live in a world where there are so many varieties of living creatures. If a creature _is_ mysterious, I can just perform a research on it and determine if it's safe for other creatures or not. Simple as that."

"Nana… When I said 'mysterious creatures', I mean creatures that are not from this world at all…"

"Hm?"

"Nana, please. I know that it's too much for you to understand, but at least can we just get some more information about key trophies? I don't even have enough knowledge to share with those folks…"

Marth suddenly steps in, "Please, Nana. We also have someone who is desperate to rescue a trophy holder from the hands of, um, not-so-dead Captain Falcon…"

"Whoa, Marth. I didn't see you among those people. But wait… did you say Captain Falcon? And did you also say 'not-so-dead'? What's going on here?"

Samus begins to speak. "My friend, Luigi... He was taken away yet again by Falcon. Only this time, Falcon isn't really himself…"

Popo then explains further. "It's a long story, but the whole point about Falcon right now is that said mysterious creature has taken his form after he died long ago. Now that creature has more powers it can abuse, including manipulating time and space…"

"Hrm…" Nana begins thinking.

Meanwhile, Mario asks Popo, "The two of you look like twins. Is she your sister or something?"

"Um… I can't really say… That's really personal to me. Don't ask why. But one thing for sure is that our relationship is actually a really bitter one." Popo speaks nervously.

"Oh… okay… I shouldn't have asked."

"…It's alright."

Nana then says, "Alright. While I have no information on that so-called mysterious creature, I might be able to help you regarding trophies."

"…Can you help me find Luigi?" Samus asked.

Mario suddenly interrupts. "Samus. I don't think he's in this world or dimension anymore. The last time I got Donkey Kong to use our trophy to find Luigi during our trip, the light didn't point at anything. It just glowed."

Nana then says, "Mafia-looking plumber, that's just rude. While I don't know how that trophy of yours work, it's just impolite to say such harsh thing like that."

Mario is left speechless and slightly grumpy at Nana's comment, then Nana replies to Samus's question.

"It's alright, ma'am. I'm pretty sure that Luigi guy is still out there somewhere. Hopefully, he'll still be alive. I'm actually surprised that Falcon apparently died a long time ago. I've been focusing on exploring anyway. But from my explorations, I might be able to help you find him."

"Really? Thank you…"

"Okay, all of you. Let me get this straight. There are three problems, yes?"

The others nod.

"First, you need to know more about the key trophies. Secondly, you have to find someone named Luigi who happens to be one of the trophy holders. Thirdly, you have to deal with the mysterious creatures. Is that all that I need to know?"

Everyone in Samus's group nods again.

"Well then… Let's start with the first problem. Key trophies… I happened to learn about those. Those are special trophies that are apparently tied to certain people. Why do I know this? Because I happened to meet someone with a trophy before."

"What? Really? Who's that person?" Jeff asked.

"Unfortunately, I met that trophy holder a long time ago, so I don't have any clear memories of what said holder looks like… but I do remember one thing." Nana said.

"What is it?" Marth asked.

"Said trophy holder lives at a village somewhere on this island. This map provides the details." Nana holds out a piece of paper, which Popo accepts. The paper depicts a map of the island the group is in. There are multiple named locations written on it.

"I actually forgot which exact village, but I think it's the one deep in the forest." Nana points to a black dot near the center of the map.

"Thanks, Nana." Marth said.

"Alright. Now that the first problem should be able to be taken care of… somewhat, for the second one I think I'll use my exploration skills to find Luigi. Basically, when you're gone, I'm also on my way, albeit going to rescue Luigi instead of finding the trophy holder."

"…Are you sure you're going alone for that?" Samus is worried despite Popo trying to convince her that Nana has better exploring experience that most people.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. I've been at more severe conditions. I'm sure I can survive on my own."

"There you go again, Nana…" Popo mumbled.

"By the way, can you tell me what Luigi looks like? Name alone isn't enough, obviously."

Samus immediately says "Quite taller than Mario…" as she points to Mario for a brief moment. She then continues by saying, "…albeit now he wears a beret with a badge on it, a blue cape, blue jumpsuit and yellow boots."

"I see. Anything else?"

"Like me, he has brown hair, blue eyes, and a mustache." Mario said.

"Hm. I take it that he's your sibling?"

"Correct."

"Good to know. Hopefully I can reunite you pretty soon." Nana tried to cheer up Mario.

"…Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Now… as for the third problem… about the mysterious creatures… Popo, can you tell me what do they look like?"

"Um… they're blob-like, they tend to have beak-like features, they're divided into various colors… and they have a power of their own. Also, aside from trophies, there are no known ways to properly stop them…"

"I see… so I have to watch out for them, correct?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Now that everything has been settled, let's get to work, shall we? Once we're all done, we can meet again at this hut. Once again, don't worry about me, I can find my way back on my own."

Everyone else nods. After that, they all leave the hut and go on their own mission.


	25. Chapter 23: Wendy

**Chapter 23: Wendy**

Samus's group enters the forest once again in order to find the village pointed by Nana. However, not long after they enter said forest, Roy suddenly decided to turn back. This prompts a question from Popo.

"Hey, Roy, why are you going back?"

"Well, um, I have a feeling that pink parka girl may need some help, so I decided to silently follow her. All of you can go ahead." Roy runs back right after he told the rest of the group.

"Roy! Wait!" Marth exclaimed, but Roy ignores him as he continues running.

"Perhaps we should leave him be. Maybe he _is_ up to something." Jeff said to Marth.

"Well, let's continue our journey then." Popo said.

The seven travelers go deeper and deeper into the forest, getting closer to the chosen destination with each step. Along their journey, all they can see are trees and other sorts of plants. So far, it's mostly a peaceful journey, until…

*step*

Popo, who is leading the group now, manages to step on a hidden rope, which triggers a trap involving a huge net underneath the group, which captures all but Samus, who is slightly further back, but she ends up being grabbed and pulled by somebody else into the bushes.

"GAH! It's a trap!" Popo exclaimed.

"I shouldn't really trust this place…" Marth commented.

"I don't see Samus anywhere!" Jeff said.

"I think she didn't get caught in the same trap as us… but she might be kidnapped by somebody else… urk." Mario said.

"Not again…" Popo groaned.

Somewhere else in the forest, Samus gets up to see an anthropomorphic turtle-like thing standing in front of her. Said turtle-like thing seems to be a female. She wears a large pink bow with white polka-dots on her head, a red beaded necklace, golden bracelets on both wrists, and pink heels. Her shell is pink and has spikes.

"Ugh… who are you?"

"The name's Wendy. I'm the village's resident witch!"

"…You must be planning something sinister, aren't you?"

"What? No! Don't mistake me for somebody evil just because I'm a witch! In fact, being a witch here is a good thing!"

"I don't believe you. Where are my companions?!"

"Ugh… You're really quick to judge people by their looks, huh? Anyway, your companions? Well… they got in trouble. Must be that Meta Knight…"

"Meta Knight?"

"Sigh… Meta Knight is a long-time villager in the, well, nearby village. He has zero tolerance to outsiders because of a horrible past or something like that. As a result, the village rarely gets visitors. Even if we do get visitors, they usually end up being held hostage and more often than not… rotting in whatever place Meta Knight used to store his victims…"

"So… you actually saved me?"

"Yes. You're slightly lagging behind, so looks like you were lucky there."

"I guess… but I have to find them! Where's that village?!"

"Come follow me." Wendy shows Samus the way to the village, which is still on the same path as where Samus's group previously walked on.

After a little bit of trekking through the thick forest without triggering any traps, the two arrive at the village's gate. It's a rather small village. As soon as they enter the village, Samus begins to wonder about something.

"Something about this place seems to be familiar…"

"Huh?"

"Oh. It's nothing. I must be imagining it."

"Alright then. But… before we continue, I'd like to know your name. Forgive me for not asking."

"Eh. It's fine. I tend to encounter people like that. Anyway, my name's Samus."

"S-Samus?!"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"Does your full name happen to be Samus Aran?!"

"Uh, yes. And how did you make such guess?"

"You see, Meta Knight has been uttering that name for a long time. Every time I'm keeping my eye on him, he's always like 'Samus, I'm still waiting for you' or something like that."

"How does he know my name anyway?"

"You might be acquainted with each other at one point in time…?"

"I… I don't know anyone named Meta Knight in my past."

"That's weird. Let's see if we can meet him in person."

As the two continue to walk, Samus notices a small house, around 30 square meters in area and around 5 meters in height. Its roof is red and its wall is turquoise. The house is surrounded by small wooden fences painted white. A monkey wearing a red cap and shirt can be seen relaxing on a chair in front of the house. Samus walks closer to the house, causing Wendy to stop on her tracks and follow Samus.

As Samus is staring at that particular house, Wendy asks, "Um. That's Diddy Kong's house. Actually, from what I heard, this used to belong to someone else a long time ago."

"Huh."

"Perhaps you can check the house again after meeting Meta Knight…"

"Oh. Right." Samus immediately focuses back on finding her companions and Meta Knight.

Now, Wendy takes Samus to what appears to be an entrance to a cellar. It's located behind a warehouse.

"Are you sure we can find the others here?" Samus asked.

"Not entirely sure. But Meta Knight's favorite place to store his victims is often this place, so we might as well check this place first."

"But it's locked. How are we supposed to enter?"

"Don't worry. I can use magic. Here I go." Wendy generates a ball of magic from between her palms and then directs it to the lock, somehow unlocking it.

After the two open the door to the cellar, they're immediately greeted with cries of help from Samus's companions, who are all tied up.

"Samus! You're here! We really need help now!" Jeff exclaimed.

"I thought we won't be rescued." Mario said.

And so, Samus and Wendy go down the cellar, only to be suddenly surprised by someone behind them. It's Meta Knight.

"You! Why are you in my cellar?!" the round masked creature said.

"Meta Knight! I'm sorry! I just want this woman's companions to be free! They mean no harm, sir!" Wendy replied.

"And who's that woman?" Meta Knight points to Samus.

"M-my name's Samus! I want you to release my allies!"

"Samus? ...Are you really her, Samus Aran?"

"…How did you even know my name in the first place? You're not affiliated with any armies, right?"

"What? No way! I know that name because the Samus I know is my childhood friend!"

"Childhood friend? Wha-?" Wendy is confused.

"Excuse me? I don't really remember anyone named Meta Knight, even in my childhood." Samus said.

"Don't you remember, Samus, when we used to get along in this little village… until that horrible invasion happened and you ended up having to live with the extraterrestrials out there because you lost your parents?!"

Samus then finally realizes something after that explanation.

"Now I remember… No wonder this place feels familiar… This was my place when I was a little girl…"

"Wha-? Am I really hearing this?" the tied-up Popo said.

"The house that I saw… it was my old house. Same paint color and everything. I'm surprised that it was finally rebuilt with nearly the same features."

"It was rebuilt that way so that I won't forget you, Samus. We got along well before." Meta Knight said.

"I believe I gave a nickname to a certain friend long time ago…"

"And that friend was me, Samus. When we were little, you chose the "Swordfighter" nickname for me… It has been a really long time… and you managed to forget nearly everything about this village that you used to live in… Whatever. It has been several years anyway."

"I… I'm sorry… I just… have so many thoughts in my head…"

"Meta Knight, so you really were friends back then…" Wendy said.

"That's right." Meta Knight replied.

"…I don't remember seeing you with a mask, so I can't really recognize you, Swordfighter." Samus said.

"Sigh. It's a long story. The truth is, this mask has been a part of me for years."

Samus is left speechless, while Wendy is unsure about what to say about the current situation. Suddenly, Marth says, "Come on! We just need to be untied! We can't stay like this!"

Noticing this, Samus asks Meta Knight, "…Swordfighter, I mean, Meta Knight, can you please just do us a favor and release all of these innocent people? We're in the middle of a really important journey right now, and I need their help."

"Are they really that trustworthy?" Meta Knight asked back.

"Yes, they are. I wouldn't have reached this far without them. Please, Meta Knight, release them."

Suddenly, silence. Meta Knight is thinking for a while, while Samus is getting more anxious.

"Fine. I'll release them. But if they end up harming the villagers, I'll have no hesitation on tying them up again and leaving them to die."

Meta Knight goes down the cellar and begins untying his victims, one by one. Samus and Wendy choose to stand on their spot and watch, in fear that Meta Knight might accuse them of bothering him if they choose to help out. Once all six of Samus's allies are untied, Meta Knight begins to question Samus.

"What brings you here now, aside from finding your companions?"

"We're looking for a trophy holder. That holder is said to live here." Samus answered.

"Trophy? Isn't that a figurine-like item with a gold round base?"

"Yes. Have you seen that trophy holder?!"

"I believe I've seen one. But unfortunately, that holder had moved out a long time ago."

"Hmm…"

Wendy then asks, "Samus, I don't understand about your current situation right now. What do you need that trophy holder for?"

"Look, we have to gather all the trophy holders in order to restore this world back to normal. This world is currently being infested by blob monsters that keep gaining power until they can destroy this world."

"Wow. I was never aware of that. I don't know that our world is in danger."

"Huh. I wish that you can stay in this village much longer, Samus. But I guess you're busy with your own thing…" Meta Knight said.

"I'm sorry, Meta Knight. But that's the current situation I'm having right now…"

Meta Knight then walks up to Samus.

"Samus, before you can go, I have to say, I never expected you to grow into a tall, beautiful and tough woman. If you think that what you're doing is good for this world, then go for it. I wish I can see you again after you're done. Stay safe out there."

"Thanks, little buddy. Anyway, do you know where that trophy holder moved to?"

"Unfortunately, I have no idea. But I'm sure you'll run into that person soon enough."

"Thanks for motivating us, Meta Knight. We'll do our best to find that person."

And so, Samus and company leave the cellar, leaving Meta Knight and Wendy behind. They then leave the village, now trying to find where the aforementioned trophy holder is.


	26. FLASHBACK 02: MEMORIES

**FLASHBACK 02: MEMORIES**

_Running SubjectIndentifier…_

…

_Now loading…_

* * *

KRRZT… KRRZT…

Bzzt… bzzt…

.

..

…

I remember one heartwarming experience.

So heartwarming… it often moved me to tears every time I remember it…

It was one warm day near the cliff side.

I remember that place having a lone large tree…

I remember that place often being visited by butterflies of various colors…

I remember that place housing one of the most breathtaking sceneries of all time.

What breathtaking scenery, you ask?

Whenever I go there, I can see two mountains, with each top covered in snow.

Down the mountains, I can also see a very huge lake, which is as wide as one of those mountains.

Whenever the sun rises, it's as if it's coming out from between those mountains.

Now… about my experience…

There we were… sitting on a white picnic blanket.

We, you ask?

Yes, there were three of us up there.

We were just relaxing, admiring the scenery…

Then, our dear caretaker begins to sing.

_Let there be peace~_

_Let there be peace~_

_Let us be free~_

_Like the butterflies flying 'round this tree~_

She then hums. What a beautiful, soothing voice.

I used to be happy by just listening to her singing.

Now that experience often leaves me with a fuzzy feeling.

…

But one day, our caretaker decided to join the war…

She said her parting words, "Take care of yourselves. Be strong. Be brave. Let my words be your source of motivation. If you really miss me, just look at that trophy of mine. Let that trophy too be your source of motivation."

The two of us who didn't go could only bid farewell. We actually didn't want her to leave us, and we still don't now.

…

…

…

But alas, she, Princess Zelda, perished in that horrible war…

KRRZT… KRRZT…

Bzzt… bzzt…

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

_Subject identified!_

_Subject #2092_

_Begin questioning subject…_

_._

_.._

…

_\- Name? -_

"Mario. And my buddy's name is Donkey Kong."

_\- Do you believe in world peace? -_

"Yes…

…

…

…

…and no."

KRRZT… KRRZT…

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

Krrrrrrrrrr…

Bzzt… bzzt…


End file.
